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)
A wave must be associated with each corpuscle.
The fundamental idea of my 1924 thesis was the following: The two aspects of reality, corpuscular and undulatory, which physics had hitherto considered as separate, must be united in a single conception.
The propagation of a wave is always associated with the motion of a corpuscle.
To each material particle there corresponds a wave, and the motion of the particle is guided by the propagation of the wave.
The coexistence of the wave and particle aspects is not a contradiction, but a profound characteristic of reality at the atomic level.
The laws of nature are such that the corpuscular and undulatory aspects of matter are inseparable.
The wave is not a mere mathematical fiction, but a physical reality.
The wave-particle duality is not a paradox, but a fundamental property of matter.
The true physics is not a collection of facts, but a way of thinking.
The progress of science is often made by daring hypotheses.
The role of the physicist is to discover the hidden harmonies of nature.
The quantum theory has revealed to us a world far stranger and more beautiful than we could have imagined.
The wave mechanics, in its initial form, was a theory of the propagation of waves associated with particles.
The wave associated with a particle is not a wave in the classical sense, but a probability wave.
The concept of a localized particle is an idealization that breaks down at the quantum level.
The quantum world is a world of potentialities, not of certainties.
The wave-particle duality is a manifestation of the deep unity of nature.
The electron is not only a particle, but also a wave.
The wave associated with a particle is a physical reality, not a mere mathematical construct.
The quantum theory has forced us to revise our fundamental concepts of space, time, and causality.
Contemporaries of Louis de Broglie
Other Physicss born within 50 years of Louis de Broglie (1892–1987).