Blackbody Radiation and the Loss of Universality: Implications for Planck's Formulation and Boltzman's Constant

Through the reevaluation of Kirchho ’s law (Robitaille P. M. L. IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci., 2003, v. 31(6), 1263‐1267), Planck’s blackbody equation (Planck M. Ann. der Physik, 1901, v. 4, 553‐356) loses its universal significance and becomes restricted to perfect absorbers. Consequently, the proper application of Planck’s radiation law involves the study of solid opaque objects, typically made from graphite, soot, and carbon black. The extension of this equation to other materials may yield apparent temperatures, which do not have any physical meaning relative to the usual temperature scales. Real temperatures are exclusively obtained from objects which are known solids, or which are enclosed within, or in equilibrium with, a perfect absorber. For this reason, the currently accepted temperature of the microwave background must be viewed as an apparent temperature. Rectifying this situation, while respecting real temperatures, involves a reexamination of Boltzman’s constant. In so doing, the latter is deprived of its universal nature and, in fact, acts as a temperature dependent variable. In its revised form, Planck’s equation becomes temperature insensitive near 300 K, when applied to the microwave background. With the formulation of his law of thermal emission [1], Planck brought to science a long sought physical order. Though individual materials varied widely in their radiative behaviors, Kirchho ’s law of thermal emission [2, 3] had enabled him to advance dramatic simplifications in an otherwise chaotic world [1]. Given thermal equilibrium and enclosure, the blackbody cavity seemed to impart upon nature a universal property, far removed from the confusion prevailing outside its walls [4]. Universality produced conceptual order and brought rapid and dramatic progress in mathematical physics. In his “Theory of Heat Radiation” [4], Planck outlines the prize: the existence of the universal constants, and . Moreover, he is able to introduce natural units of length, mass, time, and temperature [4;x164]. He writes: “In contrast with this it might be of interest to note that, with the aid of the two constants and which appear in the universal law of radiation, we have the means of establishing units of length, mass, time, and temperature, which are independent of special bodies or substances, which necessarily retain their significance for all time and for all environments, terrestrial and human or otherwise, and which may, therefore, be described as ‘natural units’ ” [4;x164]. Planck then presents the values of the four fundamental constants [4;x164]: