 Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-short-options-paper-shared-by-prelims-and-parts-a-and-b-of-the-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2018/s3/1/a/solution

The de Broglie hypothesis associates a wave phase with a material particle. Its momentum and energy set

λ = \frac{h}{p}, ω = \frac{E}{ℏ}, k = \frac{p}{ℏ} .

This is not a literal extended classical lump of matter oscillating at every point. A wavefunction gives amplitudes for measurements, and a localized particle is represented by a superposition of momentum waves. Electron diffraction, for example, exhibits interference at angles set by the same wavelength relation.

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