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)
The laws of quantum mechanics govern a world that is both subtler and richer than the world of our immediate senses.
In the microscopic world, the observer and the observed cannot be sharply separated.
The deterministic equations of the wave are solved in a space of many dimensions, a configuration space that is a purely mathematical fiction.
The hidden thermodynamics of the particle suggests a deeper level of reality.
The progress of science is a continual flight from wonder.
We must seek a theory that gives a clear picture of what is happening in the physical world, not just a set of rules for calculation.
The wave associated with a particle is not a physical wave in ordinary space, but a wave of probability—or rather, a wave that guides probability.
The unity of physics lies in the mathematical harmony of its laws.
The great epochs of science are marked by the discovery of new analogies between different phenomena.
The particle is a singularity in the wave field.
Causality, in its classical form, is shattered by the quantum facts.
The new mechanics will be to the old what the wave optics is to the geometric optics.
The idea of a universal medium, the hidden thermostat, is a modern form of the old concept of the ether.
The distinction between the past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.
The mystery of the quantum world calls for new ways of thinking.
A deep intuition is often worth more than a long calculation.
The wave-particle duality is the central enigma of quantum physics.
Contemporaries of Louis de Broglie
Other Physicss born within 50 years of Louis de Broglie (1892–1987).