3.4 Theory of dualism as proposed by the french prince de broglie

1.3. PROPOSITION OF THE THEORY OF DUALISM BY THE FRENCH SCIENTIST DE BROGLIE.

If Energy Waves could manifest particle like properties then why material particles could also not behave like matter waves? This was the question posed by the French Scientist de Broglie [Appendix XIV ] .

He proposed that the wavelength of the matter wave is the following:

p= h/λ 1.11

where p= translational momentum of the material particle,

h= Planck’s Constant,

λ = Wavelength of the matter wave under consideration;

If an electron is accelerated through (N) kVolt then the Kinetic Energy acquired is:

qV= N×10 ³ eV = N×10 ³ ×q Joules

=1.60218×10 ^-16 ×NJoules = (1/2)m _e v ²

Therefore linear momemtum acquired is :

p = m _e ×v = (√N)1.7085×10 ^-23 Kg.m.sec ^-1

Therefore: λ = h/p = [0.388/(√N)] Angstrom.

The wavelength of electron matter particles with 10 keV is of the order of 1/10 Angstrom

(10 ^-10 m).

For this radical theoretical conceptualization de Broglie was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1929. This became the basis for the invention of Electron Microscope ( Section 1.12).

The optical microscopes have a maximum magnification of 2,000 times whereas Electron Microscopes have magnifications of 2,000,000 times

The resolution capacity and hence the magnification power directly depends upon the wavelength of the interacting wave. Visible light wavelength ranges from 4000Å(Blue) to 7000 Å(Red) whereas Electron has a wavelength of 1 Å. Therefore Electron Microscope has 4000 to 7000 times more resolution as compared to the Optical Microscope.

Proton’s matter wave has still shorter wavelength hence it can resolve still finer features.

In Geneva CERN lab, in Fermi Lab of Massachusetts and at SLAC in Stanford Proton particles are being accelerated to higher and higher velocities to smash the nuclei of different elements. This will help reveal the inner structure of the nuclei and also recreate the events which followed in the first fractions of a second right after the Big Bang Explosion of Creation.

Till date Tera Electron-Volt(10 ¹² eV) energy has been achieved in these particle accelerators and three basic families of elementary particles have been discovered. They are tabulated in Table(1.1). In CERN, Geneva, 7Tev energy has been reached by Large Hadron Collidor (LHC).

The most recent announcement by “ High Energy&Nuclear Physics “ group at Brookhaven National Laboratory (Times of India, Patna Edition, Wednesday, 20 ^th April,2005) states that the collision of two Gold Ions at speed of light recreates 10 ¹² Kelvin ( trillion Kelvin temperature) a condition present in first microsecond after Big Bang. This Tera electron-volt energy collision experiment released the quarks from their confinement and showed them the existence of free quarks. The free quarks and gluons existed as plasma and not in gaseous state. Thus as we go higher up in high physics realm we are able to look at the finer features of matter as well as its very elementary form.