A Reconsideration of Matter Waves

Abstract

Matter waves were discovered in the early 20th century from their wavelength, predicted by DeBroglie, Planck's constant divided by the particle's momentum, that is, lmw = h/mv. But, the failure to obtain a reasonable theory for the matter wave frequency resulted somewhat in loss of further interest. It was expected that the frequency of the matter wave should correspond to the particle kinetic energy, that is, fmw = 1/2mv^2/h but the resulting velocity of the matter of the particle, v = fmw x lmw, is that the matter wave moves at one half the speed of the particle, obviously absurd as the particle and its wave must move together. If relativistic mass is used (as it should in any case) the problem remains, the same mass appearing in numerator and denominator and canceling. It is no help to hypothesize that the total energy, not just the kinetic energy, yields the matter wave. That attributes a matter wave to a particle at rest. It also gives the resulting velocity as c^2/v, the wave racing ahead of its particle. A reinterpretation of Einstein's derivation of relativistic kinetic energy (which produced his famous E = mc^2) leads to a valid matter wave frequency and a new understanding of particle kinetics and of the atom's stable orbits.