About concept of wave-particle duality

[south]

TL;DR

About concept of wave-particle duality

How does the concept of wave-particle duality in quantum mechanics evolve when you move to quantum field theory?

 

[PeterDonis]

How does the concept of wave-particle duality in quantum mechanics evolve when you move to quantum field theory?

It doesn't, because the concept of wave-particle duality isn't a good concept in QM to begin with. It's a common pop science concept, but it's not a concept that plays any useful role in the actual science.

 

[south]

What happened to the wavelet?

 

[PeterDonis]

What happened to the wavelet?

What wavelet? Can you give a specific reference?

 

[gentzen]

What happened to the wavelet?

That is a math question, independent of QM/QFT. There never was much connection between wavelets and wave-particle duality.

(The Hermite functions are a nice orthonormal basis which combines wave-packet and plane-wave properties, if you are interested in that kind of stuff. Unrelated to both QFT and wavelets.)

 

[south]

What wavelet? Can you give a specific reference?

Is the fusion of words wave and particle, proposed by a physician several decades ago, when standard .model wasn't developed.

 

[PeterDonis]

Is the fusion of words wave and particle, proposed by a physician several decades ago, when standard .model wasn't developed.

That's not a reference. You need an actual link to a textbook or peer-reviewed paper.

 

[otennert]

Is the fusion of words wave and particle, proposed by a physician several decades ago, when standard .model wasn't developed.

Are you mixing this up with something else maybe? I only know the term "wavelet" in the context of signal analysis / engineering. Definitely the term plays no role in the context of what you are asking in the first place.

 

[weirdoguy]

Is the fusion of words wave and particle,

How "wavelet" is the fusion of wave and particle? Anyways, this is not true.

 

[phinds]

by @Nugatory in https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/is-wave-particle-duality-linked-to-superposition.879019/#post-5521503

Although it's a popular metaphor and an OK visualization tool, "wave/particle duality" isn't a solid enough idea to build new theories on top of - it's more a user-friendly approximation of what quantum mechanics really says. Pillows are fuzzy, and tables have four legs, but when you encounter a sheep (which is fuzzy like a pillow and has four legs like a table) you aren't going to find the concept of "table/pillow duality" very helpful.

 

[phinds]

The concept of classical "wave particle duality" was dumped some 80+ years ago and is only still around due to some misguided belief that it makes things easier on beginning students. There is no wave particle duality because quantum objects are not waves and they are not particles. Those are classical concepts. Quantum objects are only that ... quantum objects. If you measure particle behaviour you will see some particle-like characteristics and if you measure wave behaviour you will see some wave characteristics, but that does not make quantum objects particles or waves and does not (as it was thought to do 80 years ago) mean there is a wave particle duality.

 

[weirdoguy]

Is the fusion of words wave and particle, proposed by a physician several decades ago, when standard .model wasn't developed.

From wikipedia, about etymology of this word:

The word wavelet has been used for decades in digital signal processing and exploration geophysics.The equivalent French word ondelette meaning "small wave" was used by Jean Morlet and Alex Grossmann in the early 1980s.