Louis de Broglie
Proposed the wave nature of electrons and suggested that all matter has wave-like properties.
Most quoted
"The fundamental idea of my thesis was the following: The experiment of Young, the diffraction of X-rays, the photoelectric effect, the Compton effect, all these phenomena show that light has a dual nature, sometimes wave, sometimes corpuscle. Why should not matter also have a dual nature?"
— from Nobel Lecture, 1929
"The idea of wave-particle duality, which is at the heart of quantum mechanics, was born from the realization that light, previously considered a wave, also exhibits particle-like properties, and conversely, matter, previously considered particles, also exhibits wave-like properties."
— from General writings/lectures
"In space-time, everything which for each of us constitutes the past, the present, and the future is given in block... Each observer, as his time passes, discovers, so to speak, new slices of space-time which appear to him as successive aspects of the material world."
— from The Revolution in Physics
All quotes by Louis de Broglie (397)
Physics is not only a collection of laws and a catalogue of unrelated facts. It is also a creation of the human mind with its freely invented ideas and concepts.
The statistical predictions of quantum mechanics... will perhaps appear one day as a consequence of a deeper, deterministic substratum.
We must never forget that the human mind is at work in science, with its intuitions, its tendencies, and its imperious need for logical unity.
The concept of the harmony of the universe is a concept that has guided science since its origins.
The idea of a continuous medium, a hidden thermostat, seems to me necessary to explain the quantum facts.
The particle is a small region of the wave where the amplitude is very large.
The deterministic ideal of classical physics appears today as an oversimplification.
In the history of human thought, the most fruitful developments frequently take place at those points where two different lines of thought meet.
The physicist must always be ready to revise the very foundations of his science.
The quantum of action reveals a discontinuity in the laws of the universe which our mind, accustomed to continuity, has great difficulty in representing.
The notion of a trajectory loses its precise meaning in the atomic domain.
We are led to attribute a periodicity to the isolated particle, a deep inner rhythm.
Science, by itself, cannot provide a complete explanation of the world and of life.
The true meaning of the quantum laws will only appear through a patient and profound study of their physical content.
The duality of waves and corpuscles is something that we must accept, not something we can explain away.
The universe is a vast symphony of waves.
The idea that the electron could behave as a wave was at first considered a mere curiosity, but it soon proved to be of fundamental importance.
Our understanding of nature deepens when we find unity behind apparent diversity.
Theoretical physics is at that fascinating stage where the old ideas are crumbling and the new ones are not yet firmly established.
The concept of matter waves extends to all particles, and thus gives to the whole of physics a unified character.
Contemporaries of Louis de Broglie
Other Physicss born within 50 years of Louis de Broglie (1892–1987).