Broglie, Louis de

1995/08/02 Azkune Mendia, Iñaki - Elhuyar Fundazioa | Kaltzada, Pili - Elhuyar Zientziaren Komunikazioa

• Biografiak

(1892-1987)

De Broglie was born into the family of aristocrats in Dieppe, Normandy, on August 15, 1892. His family was famous since the time of King Louis XIV for the services rendered in the French Court. Berraitone was killed with guilotine during the French Revolution.

De Broglie studied at the Sorbonne in Paris and, after obtaining a degree in History, decided to depart scientifically. He participated as a radio expert in the First World War and later, in 1924, he received the title of Doctor in the Sorbonne for his thesis entitled Studies on the Theory of How Many.

A year earlier, however, in 1923, he demonstrated that each particle must carry a wave. He used Einstein's formula that relates mass to energy and Planck's formula that relates frequency to energy. The length of these waves is inversely proportional to the moment of the particle. For particles of electron size, the wavelength is similar to that of x-rays and can be detected. This is what Davisson and Thomson did in 1927.

The blow-wave duplicity of the electron corresponded to the blow-wave duplicity of the photon, as Compton demonstrated. According to Einstein, matter is only a form of energy and matter can become energy (or vice versa). Faced with this, particles could have waveform or waves could adopt particle form.

Schrödinger used the new concept of electronic wave to complete the diagram of the structure of the atom. In this scheme, moving electronic particles generated stationary waves. Also, Lewis' static electrons, along with the generation of the chemical bond, generate Pauling's electronic resonances.

De Broglier received the Nobel Prize in 1929 for his work in physics. In 1932 he was lecturer at the Henri Poincaré Institute for his teaching as a theoretical physicist.

A member of the French Academy of Sciences since 1933, he was appointed secretary for his life in 1942. In 1944 he was a member of the French Academy and since 1945 he was a member of the French Atomic Energy Commission. By then he had already published New Physique and How Many (1937) and Continuity and Discontinuity in Modern Physics (1941). He also left many works, but the most outstanding are Physics and Microphysics (1947) and Wisdom and Discoveries (1951). In 1952 the United Nations awarded him the Kalinga Prize for his works on science and for the general public.

Around 1955 he began to work on the eradication of probabilistic character through quantum theory "double solution". I wanted to relate quantum mechanics to the classical wave structure, but at present the path that Louis de Broglie has worked has no continuity.

He died in 1987 in Paris.