What do we actually mean when we say that matter is a wave?
What does the wavelength of this matter wave indicate? The idea of a particle behaving like a wave is kinda incomprehensible to me.
Further, why is the wavelength inversely proportional to the momentum?
Please help me out.
Answer
Though @Christoph and @poorsod cover the mathematical concepts, the basic meaning of attributing a wave nature to matter is not emphasized enough.
It is not a matter wave in space time, it is a probability wave that is described by quantum mechanics.
A probability tells me what are my chances to find the particle at a particular (x,y,z,t) and nothing more than that. That the probability has a wave solution due to the nature of quantum mechanical equations, does not make it into a mystical field or entity. It just says that potentially the behavior of matter in a measurement can have the attributes of a wave.
That is the nature of probability functions: when we say that the probability of finding a classical particle with energy E follows a gaussian distribution about E, we do not mean that the particle is really distributed in increments of E. We just estimate the probability of finding the value E when we measure the energy.
Further, why is the wavelength inversely proportional to the momentum?
Because it is a conjecture to start with consistent with the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle which is a lynch pin of Quantum Mechanics which arises from its basic equations. There is ample experimental verification of this relation.
The answer is because the statement is consistent with experiments.
No comments:
Post a Comment