Final answer:
Attosecond pulses are extremely short bursts of light that can be conceptually shorter than the duration of single photon emission. The photoelectric effect and Heisenberg's uncertainty principle provide insights into how this is possible. Even though individual photons have significant interactions on a microscopic level, their collective effects lead to classical, observable phenomena.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question deals with the concept in physics that concerns the duration of photon interactions and the attosecond pulse duration. In Einstein's interpretation of the photoelectric effect, the interaction between a photon and an electron is instantaneous, suggesting no time delay in their interaction, regardless of light intensity or the number of photons. This interaction is key to understanding attosecond pulses, which are incredibly short bursts of light that can be shorter than the duration of a single photon emission.
According to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, the energy uncertainty of a photon ΔE can be very large if the photon transit time Δt is extremely small. This principle allows a very short-lived state, such as one that exists during an attosecond pulse, to be compatible with having a broader energy distribution than a single photon emission. In addition, quantization on macroscopic scales becomes essentially continuous, meaning despite the significance of individual photons on a microscopic level, their collective effects can produce observable phenomena like light from a bulb.
The absorption and reemission of photons by atoms can usually occur in a very short time frame, contributing to the understanding of attosecond pulses. If an atom absorbs a photon and becomes excited, it generally emits that photon again in a very short time. However, this rapid reemission doesn't necessarily 'fill in' the dark spectral lines observed, as the reemitted light is not identical to the absorbed light in terms of direction or coherence.