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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). It arises in fields like acoustics, electromagnetism, and fluid dynamics.
For example, a beam of electrons can be diffracted just like a beam of light or a water wave. 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 .
In this theory, the wave equations and the wave functions have their place, but in a somewhat different guise. The main objects of interest are not the wave functions, but rather operators, so called field operators (or just fields where "operator" is understood) on the Hilbert space of states (to be described next section). It turns out that ...
The Dirac equation is a relativistic wave equation detailing electromagnetic interactions. Dirac waves accounted for the fine details of the hydrogen spectrum in a completely rigorous way. The wave equation also implied the existence of a new form of matter, antimatter, previously unsuspected and unobserved and which was experimentally confirmed.
The energy levels of an atom in an external magnetic field depend upon the m ℓ value so it is sometimes called the magnetic quantum number. [4]: 240 The lowercase letter ℓ, is used to denote the orbital angular momentum of a single particle. For a system with multiple particles, the capital letter L is used. [3]
The energy of each phonon, as given earlier, is ħω. The velocity of the wave also is given in terms of ω and k . The direction of the wave vector is the direction of the wave propagation and the phonon polarization vector gives the direction in which the atoms vibrate.
The case = is called the ground state, its energy is called the zero-point energy, and the wave function is a Gaussian. [23] The harmonic oscillator, like the particle in a box, illustrates the generic feature of the Schrödinger equation that the energies of bound eigenstates are discretized. [11]: 352
A molecular vibration is a periodic motion of the atoms of a molecule relative to each other, such that the center of mass of the molecule remains unchanged. The typical vibrational frequencies range from less than 10 13 Hz to approximately 10 14 Hz, corresponding to wavenumbers of approximately 300 to 3000 cm −1 and wavelengths of approximately 30 to 3 μm.