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The motion of a particle in a periodic field of force

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

S. L. Malurkar
Affiliation:
Sidney Sussex College
J. Hargreaves
Affiliation:
Clare College

Extract

The electron theory of metals revived by Sommerfeld assumes that an electron moves in a metal as though this were an equipotential medium. Considering the nuclei fixed and regularly spaced we obtain a potential periodic in space coordinates. To study the effect of such fields we may simplify the problem so as to contain only one periodic term for each coordinate in its expression for potential. This problem can be reduced further to a one-dimensional one, of which the simplest example is the motion of an electron in a field with potential cos x or sin x. Darwin has shown that a suitable combination or packet of elementary de Broglie waves is capable of moving coherently in several instances. The motion of such a packet is found to be equivalent to that of a particle in classical dynamics with the Heissenberg uncertainty relation. The wave packet is used here for the motion of the electron in a periodic field. The result obtained is equivalent to that of classical dynamics. The wave packet again moves as a particle with an uncertainty relation.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge Philosophical Society 1928

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References

* Sommerfeld, , Naturwissenschaften, 15, p. 825 (1927); andCrossRefGoogle ScholarZs. f. Phys. 47, p. 1 (1928).CrossRefGoogle Scholar See also Nordheim, , Zs. f. Phys. 46, p. 833 (19271928).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Darwin, , Proc. Roy. Soc. A, Vol. 117, pp. 258293. 12 1927.CrossRefGoogle Scholar