Talk:Wave packet
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Images appear to be out of place.
The images are mis-positioned. The image of quantum tunneling is out of place here.
I will make some edits to fix what I see is broken. I'll live this for discussion. Johnjbarton (talk) 03:35, 28 May 2023 (UTC)
- Johnjbarton (talk) 02:52, 23 June 2023 (UTC)
Resolved
General lack of references; some incorrect.
Very limited references makes verifying the content of this page very difficult.
In the section Wave_packet#Gaussian_wave_packets_in_quantum_mechanics the content around "wave-packet spreading" cites Darwin, Charles Galton. "Free motion in the wave mechanics." Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Containing Papers of a Mathematical and Physical Character 117.776 (1927): 258-293.
That article is available https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspa.1927.0179?download=true
However the article does discussed the spread of a moving Gaussian wave packet, not a stationary one. See equation 4.5. The content in the page is therefore a derived result, not encyclopedic. I believe the content is physically correct, but we have no independent way to know. Johnjbarton (talk) 18:17, 28 May 2023 (UTC)
Dubious, unreferenced claim
The current article says:
Quantum mechanics ascribes a special significance to the wave packet; In the Copenhagen interpretation, it is interpreted as a probability amplitude, its norm squared describing the probability density that a particle or particles in a particular state will be measured to have a given position or momentum.
This statement is unreferenced and incorrect. The sentence is mostly correct for a "wave function" not at all correct for a "wave packet". A wave packet is a multiple wave construct. It's interpretation is entire orthogonal to that construction. Johnjbarton (talk) 01:37, 21 June 2023 (UTC)
- The last sentence of the same paragraph is also incorrect
- The dispersive character of solutions of the Schrödinger equation has played an important role in rejecting Schrödinger's original interpretation, and accepting the Born rule.[citation needed]
- Schrödinger's interpretation paper of May 1926 assigns the complex square of the wavefunction (again not packet) to "space-density of electricity"; Born's probability density interpretation appears in July 1926. See Whittaker V2, pg 275. Schrödinger's wave packet paper comes out in 1928 (Whittaker v2 pg 290); it's a paper about classical limits. Johnjbarton (talk) 02:18, 21 June 2023 (UTC)
- Moreover the last and first sentence of this paragraph directly contradict each other. At first the packet is special and describes the particle; at last the dispersive character of solutions invalidate packets as descriptions. Johnjbarton (talk) 02:38, 21 June 2023 (UTC)
- Referenced material added and off target material removed. Johnjbarton (talk) 02:51, 23 June 2023 (UTC)
Resolved
"Historical background" is for wave-particle duality, not the topic wave packet.
This article incorrectly equates "wave packet" with wave particle duality. The history section is especially egregious. It does not have a single reference about the history of wave packets. Johnjbarton (talk) 02:42, 21 June 2023 (UTC)
- Quantum wavepacket history is covered in a short chapter:
- Kragh, H. (2009). Wave Packet. In: Greenberger, D., Hentschel, K., Weinert, F. (eds) Compendium of Quantum Physics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi-org.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/10.1007/978-3-540-70626-7_232
- It could be the basis of a rewrite of the Historical background. Classical or optical wave packets are not discussed however. Johnjbarton (talk) 04:09, 22 June 2023 (UTC)
- I replaced the section. Johnjbarton (talk) 20:20, 22 June 2023 (UTC)
Resolved
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