What does a deBroglie wave look like?

  • Thread starter Thread starter jimgraber
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Debroglie Wave
jimgraber
Gold Member
Messages
247
Reaction score
18
Are deBroglie waves transverse or longitudinal? Can they be polarized?
What about the deBroglie wave of a ground state neutral spin-zero Helium 4 atom?
What experimental evidence do we have that supports the detailed nature of a deBroglie wave?
I have always assumed that deBroglie waves were mathematically identical to electromagnetic waves, but I just realized there is no basis for this assumption, and in fact it must be false, unless there is an analogue to both the magnetic and the electric components of the electromagnetic wave.
So what does a deBroglie wave "look like"?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
The de Broglie wave "looks like" the wave function of quantum mechanics. Because it is simply anothe name for it.

In particular, it is defined on the configuration space, the space of all possible configurations of the universe.
 
Insights auto threads is broken atm, so I'm manually creating these for new Insight articles. Towards the end of the first lecture for the Qiskit Global Summer School 2025, Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, Olivia Lanes (Global Lead, Content and Education IBM) stated... Source: https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/quantum-entanglement-is-a-kinematic-fact-not-a-dynamical-effect/ by @RUTA
If we release an electron around a positively charged sphere, the initial state of electron is a linear combination of Hydrogen-like states. According to quantum mechanics, evolution of time would not change this initial state because the potential is time independent. However, classically we expect the electron to collide with the sphere. So, it seems that the quantum and classics predict different behaviours!
Back
Top