Ceperley, Peter2019-07-132019-07-132019-07-09https://hdl.handle.net/1920/11560This paper explores one interpretation of quantum mechanics: that perhaps the waves of quantum mechanics are real and the particles, i.e. the quanta, are merely properties of atoms, the atoms which are responsible for launching and absorbing the waves. In this interpretation, the waves of quantum mechanics are emitted in discrete quanta, but after emission they spread out as waves do. A detector's atoms are continuously bathed in a sea of zero point noise which is in equilibrium with these atoms. An outside wave, even if faint, will throw off this equilibrium which results in one or more atoms in a particle detector absorbing a quantum partially from the wave and partially from the zero point noise field. In this article we show that the number of atoms absorbing a quantum will be proportional to the energy density of the external wave.enAttribution 3.0 United StatesPhysicsWorking Paper