Wave

In mathematics and science, a wave is a disturbance that travels through space and time,
usually by the transfer of energy. Waves are described by a wave equation that can take on
many forms depending on the type of wave. A mechanical wave is a wave that propagates
through a medium owing to restoring forces resulting from its deformation. For example,
sound waves propagate via air molecules bumping into their neighbors. This transfers some
energy to these neighbors, which will cause a cascade of collisions between neighbouring
molecules. When air molecules collide with their neighbors, they also bounce away from
them (restoring force). This keeps the molecules from actually traveling with the wave.

Waves travel and transfer energy from one point to another, often with no permanent
displacement of the particles of the medium—that is, with little or no associated mass
transport. They consist instead of oscillations or vibrations around almost fixed locations. For
example, a cork on rippling water will bob up and down while staying in about the same
place while the wave itself moves onwards. Waves carry energy but not mass because even as
a wave travels outward from the center (carrying energy of motion), the medium itself does
not flow with it.

There are also waves capable of traveling through a vacuum, e.g. electromagnetic radiation
(including visible light, ultraviolet radiation, infrared radiation, gamma rays, X-rays, and
radio waves). They consist of period oscillations in electrical and magnetic properties that
grow, reach a peak, and diminish to zero in a periodic fashion.

Researchers believe that gravitational waves travel through space, although gravitational
waves have never been directly detected. (See gravitational radiation.)
Contents
[hide]

 1 General features
 2 Mathematical description
o 2.1 Wave equation
o 2.2 Wave forms
o 2.3 Phase velocity and group velocity
o 2.4 Modulated waves
 3 Sinusoidal waves
 4 Plane waves
 5 Standing waves
 6 Physical properties
o 6.1 Interference
o 6.2 Reflection, absorption and transmission
o 6.3 Refraction
o 6.4 Diffraction
o 6.5 Polarization
o 6.6 Dispersion
 7 Mechanical waves
o 7.1 Waves on strings
o 7.2 Acoustic waves
o 7.3 Water waves
o 7.4 Seismic waves
o 7.5 Shock waves
o 7.6 Other
 8 Electromagnetic waves
 9 Quantum mechanical waves
o 9.1 de Broglie waves
 10 Gravitational waves
 11 WKB method
 12 Notes
 13 Bibliography
 14 See also
 15 Sources
 16 External links

[edit] General features

A single, all-encompassing definition for the term wave is not straightforward. A vibration
can be defined as a back-and-forth motion around a reference value. However, a vibration is
not necessarily a wave. Defining the necessary and sufficient characteristics that qualify a
phenomenon to be called a wave is flexible.

The term wave is often understood intuitively as the transport of disturbances in space, these
disturbances generally not associated with motion of the medium occupying this space as a
whole. In a wave, the energy of a vibration is moving away from the source in the form of a
disturbance within the surrounding medium (Hall 1980, p. 8). However, this notion is
problematic for a standing wave (for example, a wave on a string), where energy is moving in
both directions equally, or for electromagnetic / light waves in a vacuum, where the concept
of medium does not apply. There are water waves in the ocean; light waves from the sun;
microwaves inside the microwave oven; radio waves transmitted to the radio; and sound
waves from the radio, telephone, and person.

It may be seen that the description of waves is accompanied by a heavy reliance on physical
origin when describing any specific instance of a wave process. For example, acoustics is
distinguished from optics in that sound waves are related to a mechanical rather than an
electromagnetic wave-like transfer / transformation of vibratory energy. Concepts such as
mass, momentum, inertia, or elasticity, become therefore crucial in describing acoustic (as
distinct from optic) wave processes. This difference in origin introduces certain wave
characteristics particular to the properties of the medium involved (for example, in the case of
air: vortices, radiation pressure, shock waves, etc., in the case of solids: Rayleigh waves,
dispersion, etc., and so on).

Other properties, however, although they are usually described in an origin-specific manner,
may be generalized to all waves. For such reasons, wave theory represents a particular branch
of physics that is concerned with the properties of wave processes independently from their
physical origin.[1] For example, based on the mechanical origin of acoustic waves there can be
a moving disturbance in space–time if and only if the medium involved is neither infinitely
stiff nor infinitely pliable. If all the parts making up a medium were rigidly bound, then they
would all vibrate as one, with no delay in the transmission of the vibration and therefore no
wave motion. On the other hand, if all the parts were independent, then there would not be
any transmission of the vibration and again, no wave motion. Although the above statements
are meaningless in the case of waves that do not require a medium, they reveal a
characteristic that is relevant to all waves regardless of origin: within a wave, the phase of a
vibration (that is, its position within the vibration cycle) is different for adjacent points in
space because the vibration reaches these points at different times.

Similarly, wave processes revealed from the study of waves other than sound waves can be
significant to the understanding of sound phenomena. A relevant example is Thomas Young's
principle of interference (Young, 1802, in Hunt 1992, p. 132). This principle was first
introduced in Young's study of light and, within some specific contexts (for example,
scattering of sound by sound), is still a researched area in the study of sound.

[edit] Mathematical description

For a wave moving in one dimension traveling along the x-axis whose shape stays the same,
whether or not it be a pulse, the wave function takes one of the forms,

(traveling to the right)

(traveling to the left)

The wave equation is a partial differential equation that describes the evolution of a wave
over time in a medium where the wave propagates at the same speed independent of
wavelength (no dispersion), and independent of amplitude (linear media, not nonlinear).[2]
General solutions are based upon Duhamel's principle.[3]

In particular, consider the wave equation in one dimension, for example, as applied to a
string. Suppose a one-dimensional wave is traveling along the x axis with velocity v and
amplitude u (which generally depends on both x and t), the wave equation is

The velocity v will depend on the medium through which the wave is moving.

The general solution for the wave equation in one dimension was given by d'Alembert; it is
known as d'Alembert's formula:[4]

This formula represents two shapes traveling through the medium in opposite directions; F in
the positive x direction, and G in the negative x direction, of arbitrary functional shapes F and
G.

Wavelength λ, can be measured between any two corresponding points.

[edit] Wave forms

The form of the forward propagating wave F in d'Alembert's formula involves the argument
x − vt. Constant values of this argument correspond to constant values of F, and these
constant values occur if x increases at the same rate that vt increases. That is, the wave shaped
like the function F will move in the positive x-direction at velocity v (and G will propagate at
the same speed in the negative x-direction).[5]

In the case of a periodic function F with period λ, that is, F(x + λ − vt) = F(x − vt), the
periodicity of F in space means that a snapshot of the wave at a given time t finds the wave
varying periodically in space with period λ (sometimes called the wavelength of the wave). In
a similar fashion, this periodicity of F implies a periodicity in time as well: F(x − v(t + T)) =
F(x − vt) provided vT = λ, so an observation of the wave at a fixed location x finds the wave
undulating periodically in time with period T = λ/v.[6]

[edit] Phase velocity and group velocity

Frequency dispersion in groups of gravity waves on the surface of deep water. The red dot moves
with the phase velocity, and the green dots propagate with the group velocity.

Main articles: Phase velocity and Group velocity

There are two velocities that are associated with waves, the phase velocity and the group
velocity. To understand them, one must consider several types of waveform. For
simplification, examination is restricted to one dimension.

The most basic wave (a form of plane wave) may be expressed in the form:

which can be related to the usual sine and cosine forms using Euler's formula. Rewriting the

argument, , makes clear that this expression describes a vibration of wavelength

traveling in the x-direction with a constant phase velocity .[7]

The other type of wave to be considered is one with localized structure described by an
envelope, which may be expressed mathematically as, for example:

where now A(k1) (the integral is the inverse fourier transform of A(k1)) is a function
exhibiting a sharp peak in a region of wave vectors Δk surrounding the point k1 = k. In
exponential form:
with Ao the magnitude of A. For example, a common choice for Ao is a Gaussian wave packet:
[8]

where σ determines the spread of k1-values about k, and N is the amplitude of the wave.

The exponential function inside the integral for ψ oscillates rapidly with its argument, say
φ(k1), and where it varies rapidly, the exponentials cancel each other out, interfere
destructively, contributing little to ψ.[7] However, an exception occurs at the location where
the argument φ of the exponential varies slowly. (This observation is the basis for the method
of stationary phase for evaluation of such integrals.[9]) The condition for φ to vary slowly is
that its rate of change with k1 be small; this rate of variation is:[7]

where the evaluation is made at k1 = k because A(k1) is centered there. This result shows that
the position x where the phase changes slowly, the position where ψ is appreciable, moves
with time at a speed called the group velocity:

The group velocity therefore depends upon the dispersion relation connecting ω and k. For
example, in quantum mechanics the energy of a particle represented as a wave packet is E =
ħω = (ħk)2/(2m). Consequently, for that wave situation, the group velocity is

showing that the velocity of a localized particle in quantum mechanics is its group velocity.[7]
Because the group velocity varies with k, the shape of the wave packet broadens with time,
and the particle becomes less localized.[10] In other words, the velocity of the constituent
waves of the wave packet travel at a rate that varies with their wavelength, so some move
faster than others, and they cannot maintain the same interference pattern as the wave
propagates.