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Wave numbers and wave vectors play an essential role in optics and the physics of wave scattering, such as X-ray diffraction, neutron diffraction, electron diffraction, and elementary particle physics. For quantum mechanical waves, the wavenumber multiplied by the reduced Planck constant is the canonical momentum. Wavenumber can be used to ...
Even in dispersive media, the frequency f of a sinusoidal wave is equal to the phase velocity v of the wave divided by the wavelength λ of the wave: =. In the special case of electromagnetic waves in vacuum , then v = c , where c is the speed of light in vacuum, and this expression becomes f = c λ . {\displaystyle f={\frac {c}{\lambda }}.}
In the context of electromagnetics and optics, the frequency is some function ω(k) of the wave number, so in general, the phase velocity and the group velocity depend on specific medium and frequency. The ratio between the speed of light c and the phase velocity v p is known as the refractive index, n = c / v p = ck / ω.
A sphere rotating around an axis. Points farther from the axis move faster, satisfying ω = v / r.. In physics, angular frequency (symbol ω), also called angular speed and angular rate, is a scalar measure of the angle rate (the angle per unit time) or the temporal rate of change of the phase argument of a sinusoidal waveform or sine function (for example, in oscillations and waves).
The wave vector and angular wave vector are related by a fixed constant of proportionality, 2 π radians per cycle. It is common in several fields of physics to refer to the angular wave vector simply as the wave vector, in contrast to, for example, crystallography. [1] [2] It is also common to use the symbol k for whichever is in use.
Assuming a sinusoidal wave moving at a fixed wave speed, wavelength is inversely proportional to the frequency of the wave: waves with higher frequencies have shorter wavelengths, and lower frequencies have longer wavelengths. [6] Wavelength depends on the medium (for example, vacuum, air, or water) that a wave travels through.
The simplest approach is to focus on the description in terms of plane matter waves for a free particle, that is a wave function described by =, where is a position in real space, is the wave vector in units of inverse meters, ω is the angular frequency with units of inverse time and is time.
Wave speed is a wave property, which may refer to absolute value of: . phase velocity, the velocity at which a wave phase propagates at a certain frequency; group velocity, the propagation velocity for the envelope of wave groups and often of wave energy, different from the phase velocity for dispersive waves