Department of Physics

Faculty of Science Assiut University

Course Title:
Quantum Mechanics P311
Chapter 1
Group Velocity of a Wave-Packet
Prof. Dr. Ahmed A Ebrahim
Head of Physics Department – Assiut University
Second Floor Room No. 200

First semester 2022/2023

Understanding the ideas of each lecture requires
the knowledge of the previous lectures.

If you keep up, you

won’t end up looking
like this the night
before the quizzes!
De Broglie
• The waves can be described using the language of quantum
particles(photons).
• Can particles behave as waves?
• Wave behavior is not limited to photons but extends to all particles
Material (electrons, protons, neutrons, ........).
• Bohr : the orbital angular momentum of the electron around the nucleus
is equal to

Bohr - Summerfield: The path of the electron around the nucleus is

stable if it is equal to an integer of wavelength
De Broglie wavelength
What is the De Broglie
wavelength of an electron with an
energy of 50 MeV?

electron path
• What is the De Broglie wavelength
of a 70 gm tennis ball and a speed
of 25 m/s?

This wavelength is of the order of dimensions

between the crystal planes that determine the
crystal structure for solid bodies
What is the De Broglie wavelength of the charge carriers in an ideal
metal? Note that the kinetic energy of order of 5 MeV.

 Calculate the De Broglie wavelength of a particle whose momentum (impulse) is

1 keV/c?
 Calculate the wavelength of a basketball with mass 0.2kg and a speed
of 10m/s?

What is your comment on the answer?

 What is the wavelength of the electron in a hydrogen atom?
This wavelength is approximately equal to the diameter of the
hydrogen atom and through it we can form a preliminary picture for
the size of the atom, that is, the wave properties of the electron give
us the dimensions of the atom, and this is an excellent feature
because the electron appears as a cloud within a volume that
determines the dimensions of the atom.

Notice that the Bohr–Summerfield condition gives us the previous

result
• Calculate the wavelength of the neutron, knowing that its kinetic energy
is 10Mev?

This wavelength corresponds to the dimensions of the nucleus, which are of the
Fermi order, note by comparison Between the dimensions of the atom and the
nucleus, we find that the dimensions of the atom are a million times greater than
the dimensions of the nucleus, which is evidence of The high density of nuclear
material (1 cm3 nuclear material is approximately equal to a mass of 120 million
tons).
Calculate the wavelength of a quark that has kinetic energy 2000Mev?

oThey are approximately the dimensions of the proton and neutron in

the nucleus
De Broglie wave
• If waves behave like particles (photons), why don't particles behave
like waves?. These waves are called pilot waves:

Phase velocity of a plane wave

We suppose that the plane wave can represent a physical particle can be
represented by a single wavelength as the form:
Let's try to discuss the first relationship
• This wave function (zeroes or nodes state) vanishes when:

• To calculate the velocity of a wave, we

• differentiate the previous relationship

Wave velocity, phase velocity, or propagation velocity

A wave of constant amplitude and frequency accompanies a particle in space

• The mathematical relationship between phase velocity
and particle velocity:

This relationship shows that the phase velocity is greater than the speed of
light, and from the theory of relativity, the velocity of a particle cannot be
greater than the speed of light.
Group Velocity of a Pilot Wave-Packet
 It seems that the wave accompanying the material particle is not flat, but
rather it is a bundle of waves close in frequency and subject to
constructive and destructive interference (overlap), which results in
regions of high amplitude and areas of small amplitude.
 The particle is not accompanied by a single wave, but rather a group of
waves superimposed together to give the result or the final form of the
wave function.
Group Velocity of a Pilot Wave-Packet
Group Velocity of a Pilot Wave-Packet
Suppose we have two plane waves and we want to add them, a
wave with k and ω and the other with k+Δk and ω+Δω
Group Velocity of a Pilot Wave-Packet
This relationship expresses the new wave function accompanying the particle - the De
Broglie wave, p(x,t) describe the wave packet and the function sin(kx-ωt) is the wave
envelope. The nodes positions p(x,t)= 0 is achieved when:
Group Velocity of a Pilot Wave-Packet
We get the wave packet velocity we get from

The velocity of a wave packet is the angular frequency differential with respect to
the wave number and it is different from the phase velocity, mathematically
Group Velocity of a Pilot Wave-Packet

What is the phase velocity here?