Erwin Schrödinger's Reaction to Louis de Broglie's Thesis on the Quantum Theory

Joār Andrade e Silva

Erhard Scheibe

Nathan Willig Lima, Ricardo Karam

The identification of particle velocity with the velocity of a wave group was a crucial assumption that resolved important inconsistencies in the theoretical developments of Louis de Broglie and Erwin Schrödinger. Interestingly, this was one of the few common aspects of their work. In this paper, we present a reconstruction of how group velocity became essential for both de Broglie and Schrödinger, as well as a comparison of important differences in their theories. Pedagogical lessons to be extracted from this episode are also outlined.

Jonathan Allday

In 1924, a young PhD student submitted a thesis containing the germ of an idea that would revolutionize our understanding of the material world. The student was Louis De Broglie, and for a while, he had been meditating on the wave/particle nature of light. De Broglie’s ideas were greeted rather sceptically at first. His PhD supervisor even asked for a second copy so he could send it to Einstein for his opinion. Einstein gave the work his seal of approval. News of De Broglie’s thesis spread around the physics community from 1924 to 1925. In autumn 1925, Erwin Schrodinger was visiting colleagues in Switzerland and was asked to present a summary of De Broglie’s work. Having studied De Broglie’s thesis in some detail he became an enthusiastic supporter. During the Christmas and New Year of 1925/1926, Schrodinger holidayed in the Alps with his mistress. On his return, he had a functioning wave equation worked out.

Michel Bitbol, Olivier Darrigol

Wim Vegt

The fundamental question in this manuscript is: “Is it possible to build matter out of Light (confined electromagnetic waves)?” To answer this question we first have to answer the question how we have come to this world of Probability Waves and Elementary Particles and Quantum Physics. Louis de Broglie described in 1924 in his PhD thesis the wave properties of matter. Erwin Schrödinger published in 1926 the well-known Schrödinger wave equation with the characteristic spherical and elliptical wave solutions. To describe these material waves, the immediately and first explanation was: “There is only one possibility. These are “electromagnetic waves”. De Broglie waves are ” Light Waves”. Because these were the only waves, known in the world of Physics. But there was a fundamental problem. These material waves, discovered by Louis de Broglie and mathematically described by Erwin Schrödinger could never be solutions of the well-known 4 equations of James Clerk Maxwell. The material waves were spherical and elliptical solutions and that was impossible for the solutions of the Maxwell Equations. According to the Maxwell Equations, light always travels along a straight path. A second problem was that the model of the atom of Bohr could not hold. How could an electron be everywhere at the same time in a kind of a spherical shell surrounding the nucleus. And be a particle at the same time. And Bohr found a compromise to declare the “De Broglie” waves to be the probability waves. Two problems were solved. Bohr’s planetary model could hold. And there was a name for the unknown material waves, discovered by Louis de Broglie and mathematically described by Erwin Schrödinger. The theory of “Probability Waves, Elementary Particles and Quantum Physics” had been created. To find a possibility, to create matter out of light we have to go back to the Equations of James Clerk Maxwell. The only possibility to declare the probability waves, discovered by Louis de Broglie, to be electromagnetic waves, to be light, and to be the building element of our universe, is to find evidence that he Maxwell Equations are not complete and that it is possible to confine light (electromagnetic waves) in spherical and elliptical shapes. A new equation has to be found. In this article it has been claimed that this missing equation is equation (5). Because the Theory of General Relativity has been built on the Einstein-Maxwell Equation, a new equation has to be found that describes in a generalized way the interaction between light and matter. This missing equation is equation (5-a).