Physical discussion of the Mossbauer effect

In order to interpret the peculiarities of the Mossbauer effect, both an approach based on the wave nature of the emitted (or absorbed) gamma radiation and an approach based on its corpuscular nature are currently employed in the specialized literature. However, while the former appears to be contradicted by the experimental evidence and by the uncertainty principle, the latter appears to hit the target, provided one takes into account the zero-point momentum reservoir of the mechanical oscillators forming the crystal lattice. Such a reservoir, indeed, appears to lend itself to the interpretation of all kinds of microscopic elastic phenomena in solids. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.