Topics covered

Wave packets
Group and Phase velocities
de-Broglie waves
Wave-particle duality
Wave function

Superposition of simple harmonic oscillations

of different frequencies, amplitudes, phases
can create arbitrary waveforms

Fourier Decomposition

Addition of two waves

Addition of three waves

Higher-frequency waves travel faster

than lower-frequency waves. These
differences in speed cause spreading
or dispersion of wave packets, as
shown in the movie.

The group velocity is the speed

of the wavepacket and the
phase velocity is the speed of
the individual waves.
http://resource.isvr.soton.ac.uk/spcg/tutorial/tutorial/Tutorial_files/Web-inter-superp.htm
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Waves non-local nature

De Broglie waves
All matter can exhibit wave like behaviour
De Broglie, in his 1924 PhD thesis, proposed that just as light has both wavelike and particle-like properties, electrons also have wave-like properties.

Standing waves on a circle

Standing wave patterns for Bohr-de

Broglie stationary states.

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De Broglie Waves
A moving body behaves as a wave
For a photon

This is applicable, according to de Broglie, to material particles

as well as photons
1

m0v

v2
1 2 Lorentz factor
c

The quantity whose variations make up the matter waves is

called WAVE FUNCTION

Waves of probability
Probability density
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Wave particle duality

Wave
Non-local
Continuous

Particle
Diffraction

Local

Which way expt.

In packets

Photo electric effect

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Diffraction of waves

Single slit

Double slit

Multiple slits
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Wave nature
Diffraction of electrons Davisson-Germer
Experiment (1927).
Diffraction of neutral atoms.
Diffraction of molecules (1999)
Neutron diffraction patterns
Electron microscope

15

1. T. Young, An account of some cases of the production of colours, not hitherto described,
Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 92, 387397 (1802).
2. T. Young, The Bakerian lecture: experiments and calculations relative to physical optics,
Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 94, 116 (1804).
3. R. Mir, J. S. Lundeen, M. W. Mitchell, A. M. Steinberg, J. L. Garretson, and H. M. Wiseman, A
double-slit which-way experiment on the complementarityuncertainty debate, New J. Phys.
9(8), 287 (2007).
4. O. Carnal and J. Mlynek, Youngs double-slit experiment with atoms: A simple atom
interferometer, Phys.Rev. Lett. 66(21), 26892692 (1991).
5. C. Jnsson, Elektroneninterferenzen an mehrerenk unstlichhergestellter Feinspalten, Z.
Phys. 161, 454474 (1961).
6. C. Jnsson, Electron diffraction at multiple slits, Am. J. Phys. 42(1), 411 (1974).
7. A. Zelinger, R. Ghler, C. G. Shull, W. Treimer, and W. Mampe, Single- and double-slit
diffraction of neutrons, Rev. Mod. Phys. 60(4), 10671073 (1988).
8. M. Arndt, O. Nairz, J. Vos-Andreae, C. Keller, G. van der Zouw, and A. Zeilinger, Waveparticle duality of C(60) molecules, Nature 401(6754), 680682 (1999).
9. Z. N. Ozer, H. Chaluvadi, M. Ulu, M. Dogan, B. Aktas, and D. Madison, Youngs double-slit
interference for quantum particles, Phys. Rev. A 87(4), 042704 (2013).
10. F. Shimizu, K. Shimizu, and H. Takuma, Double-slit interference with ultracold metastable
Neon atoms, Phys. Rev. A 46(1), R17R20 (1992).
11. O. Carnal and J. Mlynek, Youngs double-slit experiment with atoms: A simple atom
interferometer, Phys. Rev. Lett. 66(21), 26892692 (1991).
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Demonstration of matter waves : diffraction of electrons

Simulation from wikipedia "Wave-particle duality" by Thierry Dugnolle
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Wave function

Waves of what?
In EM waves, they are electric and magnetic fields
Waves of probability.
A wave function describes the quantum state of a
system, containing all the information about the
entire system not a separate wave function for
each particle in the system.

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Probability distribution

Electron density map shows a probability

distribution for a given molecule.
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Probability clouds
Distribution of Electron probability in HF

Electron probability map

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Wave function
1. The

state of a quantum mechanical system is described by a

wave function.
2. Each dynamical variable is represented in quantum mechanics
by a linear operator.
Properties of wave functions
a. Single valued
b. Wavefunction and its first space derivative is continuous
c. Finite
Free particle wave function

i
Et px

A exp

A exp i(k x t
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Wave function Properties

The wavefunction must be finite everywhere
Single valued
Wave function and its first derivative
continuous
Normalizable
Functions that do not satisfy these properties
do not correspond to physically realizable
situations.
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