A different approach to wave mechanics is presented in accordance with de Broglie’s original hypothesis applying the case of photons to all material particles. It derives propagating matter waves conceptually from a theory of evolution, and not by the formal setting of eigenvalue equations. The quality of explanation is at issue, and not the mere description of phenomena. A monoenergetic particle transport along two directions is described by a partial differential equation and by a random walk model. The dual description is applied to the particle picture and the wave picture; it leads with identical initial values to identical causal and timelike solutions in either picture. The partial differential equations are a Telegrapher equation in 1‐d space and its analytic continuation, a modified Klein Gordon equation; the solutions represent a density distribution and an amplitude profile, respectively. However, only the corresponding random walk models — equivalent to Feynman’s integral over all paths — derive the solutions as path‐end distributions with the additional information about the flight direction. This allows following up momentum dissipation along two directions by means of two particle beams and their profiles. Thereby the total number of particles is divided up onto the two beams according to linear or squared fractions depending on the beam configuration putting up a 1‐d or a 2‐d space. This aspect escapes conventional descriptions but serves to describe the transport in the particle or in the wave picture in dependence on the knowledge/ignorance of the particle’s flight direction.
A different approach to wave mechanics is presented in accordance with de Broglie’s original hypothesis applying the case of photons to all material particles. It derives propagating matter waves conceptually from a theory of evolution, and not by the formal setting of eigenvalue equations. The quality of explanation is at issue, and not the mere description of phenomena. A monoenergetic particle transport along two directions is described by a partial differential equation and by a random walk model. The dual description is applied to the particle picture and the wave picture; it leads with identical initial values to identical causal and timelike solutions in either picture. The partial differential equations are a Telegrapher equation in 1‐d space and its analytic continuation, a modified Klein Gordon equation; the solutions represent a density distribution and an amplitude profile, respectively. However, only the corresponding random walk models — equivalent to Feynman’s integral over all paths — derive the solutions as path‐end distributions with the additional information about the flight direction. This allows following up momentum dissipation along two directions by means of two particle beams and their profiles. Thereby the total number of particles is divided up onto the two beams according to linear or squared fractions depending on the beam configuration putting up a 1‐d or a 2‐d space. This aspect escapes conventional descriptions but serves to describe the transport in the particle or in the wave picture in dependence on the knowledge/ignorance of the particle’s flight direction.
Since the interest in the quantum phenomena started, there have been two main approaches to the quantum theory, the first approach investigates the motion of a wave-particle object by assuming the wave has the characteristics of a moving particle, momentum and energy, this approach was developed by physicists Max Planck, Albert Einstein, and others. The second approach investigates the motion of a particle-wave object by assuming the particle has the characteristics of a moving wave, wavelength, wave vector, and frequency, this approach was developed by physicists De Broglie, Schrodinger and others which led to the presence of quantum mechanics. This article focuses on the second approach and merging it with classical mechanics. An early mathematical formulation for the quantum theory was proposed by De Broglie’s relations and later on, another formulation was given by Schrodinger’s equation. A successful attempt to bridge the gap between classical mechanics with quantum theory implemented via a mathematical derivation for De Broglie’s relations and Schrodinger formulation, The derivation process overcame a main obstacle was the convergence of the deterministic nature of classical mechanics with the probabilistic nature of the quantum theory by adopting an innovative method based upon replacing constant values in a deterministic relation with probabilistic variables in the same relation, and this led to switch the relation from deterministic representation to probabilistic representation. Both classical and quantum explanation are given for the deduced formulas. An energy approach is instrumented. Since classical mechanics formulas are not sufficient to explain the quantum phenomena, a new concept of complementary energy introduced in order to connect the parameters of a moving particle with the parameters of an associated wave, the value of the complementary energy for each particle adjusted the total energy equation of N moving particles without changing the magnitude of the total energy of a system of N particles. In special cases, the value of the complementary energy for some particles equals the value of the total energy for the particles. The derivation process indicates that complementary energy corresponds to the potential energy on the surface of the material which prevents the particles to escape from the boundary of the matter to the outer space and maintains its coherence, complementary energy concept also manifest the impact of the moving particles on a single particle due to the energy conveyed during direct contact in case of collision or by the remote influence through an existing field in the space, so it represents an energy of dual nature for both matter and radiation wave combined. The complementary energy is not introduced as mathematical assumption in order to manipulate the total energy equation, it’s actually exists in the total energy equation and its validity has not been applied before. A general format for any potential energy is obtained regardless the nature of field it represents (a universal format for potential energy) that is by using mathematical manipulation for the equation of total energy of N moving particles. The derivation process led to a particle-wave formula. The substitution into the particle-wave formula with the speed of light, De Broglie’s relations, revealed. Some additional applications for the particle-wave formula are suggested, also as a well known energy quantization formula obtained by applying all of De Broglie’s relation, a general energy, and speed formulas resulting during the derivation process. Matching time independent equation called Schrodinger’s amplitude equation with classical mechanics formulation demonstrated by deducing both the wave function and the magnitude of the wave vector from the classical formulation after converting it to probabilistic formulation. A dedicated section for wave function solutions for Schrodinger’s time dependent equation was given in terms of the wave functions and the magnitude of the wave vectors obtained from the matching process of Schrodinger’s amplitude equation with classical mechanics.
Abstract We present a unified field theory of wave and particle in quantum mechanics. This emerges from an investigation of three weaknesses in the de Broglie–Bohm theory: its reliance on the quantum probability formula to justify the particle-guidance equation; its insouciance regarding the absence of reciprocal action of the particle on the guiding wavefunction; and its lack of a unified model to represent its inseparable components. Following the author’s previous work, these problems are examined within an analytical framework by requiring that the wave–particle composite exhibits no observable differences with a quantum system. This scheme is implemented by appealing to symmetries (global gauge and spacetime translations) and imposing equality of the corresponding conserved Noether densities (matter, energy, and momentum) with their Schrödinger counterparts. In conjunction with the condition of time-reversal covariance, this implies the de Broglie–Bohm law for the particle where the quantum potential mediates the wave–particle interaction (we also show how the time-reversal assumption may be replaced by a statistical condition). The method clarifies the nature of the composite’s mass, and its energy and momentum conservation laws. Our principal result is the unification of the Schrödinger equation and the de Broglie–Bohm law in a single inhomogeneous equation whose solution amalgamates the wavefunction and a singular soliton model of the particle in a unified spacetime field. The wavefunction suffers no reaction from the particle since it is the homogeneous part of the unified field to whose source the particle contributes via the quantum potential. The theory is extended to many-body systems. We review de Broglie’s objections to the pilot-wave theory and suggest that our field-theoretic description provides a realization of his hitherto unfulfilled ‘double solution’ programme. A revised set of postulates for the de Broglie–Bohm theory is proposed in which the unified field is taken as the basic descriptive element of a physical system.
In Hawking’s view physics has been broken up into many partial theories, while the ultimate goal of physicists is to unify them. The two basic theories of 20th-century physics, relativity theory and quantum theory, are based on completely different logical prerequisites and exactly separate: matter is described as particles in relativity theory and as waves in quantum mechanics. Here, based on the identical logical prerequisites, we unify Einstein’s special relativity (SR) and de Broglie’s matter-wave theory (MWT) into the theory of dualistic relativity (DR), taking a significant step toward the unification of relativity and quantum mechanics. From the definition of time, we derive the Lorentz transformation in differential form and establish the theory of DR, which generalizes the wave-particle duality of matter motion, and uniformly derives Einstein’s formula E=mc2, Planck’s equation E=hf, and de Broglie’s relation λ=h/p. From the logical prerequisite completely different from Einstein’s hypothesis of the invariance of light speed and along the logical path completely different from Einstein’s SR, we have deduced the whole theoretical system of Einstein’s SR and de Broglie’s MWT. In the theory of DR, the two great formulae originally separated, Einstein’s formula E=mc2 and Planck’s equation E=hf, become a pair of twin formulae unified in an identical theoretical system.
In the particle-wave duality interpretation of matter and radiation (Topic G3) a particle moving in space can also be described as a wave in space with a wavelength related to the particle momentum by de Broglie’s equation, λ=h/p. In quantum mechanics, the notion of a particle moving in defined trajectories in a system is replaced entirely by this description of the system in terms of its wavefunctions, ψ. The wavefunction simultaneously describes all regions of space in which the particle it represents can be found. This, in turn, introduces the idea of uncertainty into quantum mechanics because the exact position of the particle at each point in time is not defined, only the region of space of all its possible positions. The exact shape of the wavefunction is important because the probability of finding the particle at each point is proportional to ψ2 at that point; a greater amplitude in the wavefunction corresponds to a greater probability density in the particle’s distribution.
This paper derives the de Broglie matter wave and the Born rule as logical consequences of two fundamental principles: (i) the mathematical necessity of Fourier duality between position and wave number, combined with the physical requirement of continuous spatial translations (enforced by translation symmetry), and (ii) Noether’s theorem applied to Lagrangians with no explicit spatial dependence. Translation invariance of the laws of physics, assuming a uniform background, then identifies linear momentum p as the conserved Noether charge conjugate to position x. This yields the de Broglie relation p ∝ k through equivalence of the Noether (symmetry) and Fourier (duality) pictures of conjugate variables. The resulting de Broglie wave is interpreted as a virtual, unobservable predisposition field: an alternative Fourier-space description of the same particle. By associating wave intensity with statistical energy flux (for single particles emitted sequentially or coherent ensembles), we demonstrate that the probability density of detection must be proportional to the squared modulus of the wave function, P(x) ∝ |ψ(x)|². This yields the Born rule without invoking interference experiments or photon-specific classical analogies for non-photonic matter waves. The derivation relies solely on symmetry principles, Fourier mathematics, and the indivisibility of quantum detection events, offering a reconstruction free of ad-hoc postulates.
We discuss the particle method in quantum mechanics which provides an exact scheme to calculate the time-dependent wavefunction from a single-valued continuum of trajectories where two spacetime points are linked by at most a single orbit. A natural language for the theory is offered by the hydrodynamic analogy, in which wave mechanics corresponds to the Eulerian picture and the particle theory to the Lagrangian picture. The Lagrangian model for the quantum fluid may be developed from a variational principle. The Euler-Lagrange equations imply a fourth-order nonlinear partial differential equation to calculate the trajectories of the fluid particles as functions of their initial coordinates using as input the initial wavefunction. The admissible solutions are those consistent with quasi-potential flow. The effect of the superposition principle is represented via a nonclassical force on each particle. The wavefunction is computed via the standard map between the Lagrangian coordinates and the Eulerian fields, which provides the analogue in this model of Huygens principle in wave mechanics. The method is illustrated by calculating the time-dependence of a free Gaussian wavefunction. The Eulerian and Lagrangian pictures are complementary descriptions of a quantum process in that they have associated Hamiltonian formulations that are connected by a canonical transformation. The de Broglie-Bohm interpretation, which employs the same set of trajectories, should not be conflated with the Lagrangian version of the hydrodynamic interpretation. The theory implies that the mathematical results of the de Broglie-Bohm model may be regarded as statements about quantum mechanics itself rather than about its interpretation.