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Surface waves in water showing water ripples. In physics, mathematics, engineering, and related fields, a wave is a propagating dynamic disturbance (change from equilibrium) of one or more quantities. Periodic waves oscillate repeatedly about an equilibrium (resting) value at some frequency.
The wave function of an initially very localized free particle. In quantum physics, a wave function (or wavefunction) is a mathematical description of the quantum state of an isolated quantum system. The most common symbols for a wave function are the Greek letters ψ and Ψ (lower-case and capital psi, respectively). Wave functions are complex ...
The wave envelope is the profile of the wave amplitudes; all transverse displacements are bound by the envelope profile. Intuitively the wave envelope is the "global profile" of the wave, which "contains" changing "local profiles inside the global profile".
The wave equation is a second-order linear partial differential equation for the description of waves or standing wave fields such as mechanical waves (e.g. water waves, sound waves and seismic waves) or electromagnetic waves (including light waves).
Polarization (waves) Coherence (physics), the quality of a wave to display a well defined phase relationship in different regions of its domain of definition; Hilbert transform, a method of changing phase by 90° Reflection phase shift, a phase change that happens when a wave is reflected off of a boundary from fast medium to slow medium
The concept that matter behaves like a wave was proposed by French physicist Louis de Broglie (/ d ə ˈ b r ɔɪ /) in 1924, and so matter waves are also known as de Broglie waves. The de Broglie wavelength is the wavelength , λ , associated with a particle with momentum p through the Planck constant , h : λ = h p . {\displaystyle \lambda ...
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.
In physics, a mechanical wave is a wave that is an oscillation of matter, and therefore transfers energy through a material medium. [1] Vacuum is, from classical perspective, a non-material medium, where electromagnetic waves propagate.)