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Group Velocity

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RAJASEKAR PICHAIMUTHU
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22 views15 pages

Group Velocity

Uploaded by

RAJASEKAR PICHAIMUTHU
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Phase Velocity and Group

Velocity
Particle
______________________________

Our traditional understanding of a particle…

“Localized” - definite position, momentum,


confined in space
Wave
____________________________
Our traditional understanding of a wave….

“de-localized” – spread out in space and time


Waves
Normal Waves
• are a disturbance in space
• carry energy from one place to another
• often (but not always) will (approximately) obey the
classical wave equation
Matter Waves
• disturbance is the wave function Y(x, y, z, t )
– probability amplitude Y
– probability density p(x, y, z, t ) =|Y|2
General Wave properties
Oscillations at a particlar point
𝑦 = 𝐴 cos 2 𝜋𝜈𝑡
travelling waves x = Vp t
y = 𝐴 cos 2 𝜋𝜈 𝑡 − 𝑥/Vp
y = 𝐴 cos 2 𝜋 𝜈𝑡 − 𝜈𝑥/Vp
𝑏𝑢𝑡Vp = 𝜈𝜆
𝑦 = 𝐴 cos 𝜔𝑡 − 𝑘𝑥

𝜔 = 2𝜋𝜈 (angular frequency)


2𝜋
𝑘= (wave number)
𝜆
A “Wave Packet”
____________________________________

How do you construct a wave packet?


What happens when you add up waves?
________________________________

The Superposition principle


Adding up waves of different frequencies.....
____________________________________
Constructing a wave packet by adding up
several waves …………
___________________________________
If several waves of different wavelengths
(frequencies) and phases are superposed
together, one would get a resultant which
is a localized wave packet
A wave packet describes a particle
____________________________

• A wave packet is a group of waves with slightly


different wavelengths interfering with one
another in a way that the amplitude of the
group (envelope) is non-zero only in the
neighbourhood of the particle

• A wave packet is localized – a good


representation for a particle!
Wave packet, phase velocity and group
velocity ____________________________

• The spread of wave packet in wavelength depends on


the required degree of localization in space – the
central wavelength is given by

h
=
p

• What is the velocity of the wave packet?


Wave packet, phase velocity and group
velocity
• The velocities of the individual waves which
superpose to produce the wave packet
representing the particle are different - the wave
packet as a whole has a different velocity from the
waves that comprise it
• Phase velocity: The rate at which the phase of the
wave propagates in space
• Group velocity: The rate at which the envelope of
the wave packet propagates
Phase velocity
• Phase velocity is the rate at which the phase
of the wave propagates in space.
• This is the velocity at which the phase of any
one frequency component of the wave will
propagate.
• You could pick one particular phase of the
wave and it would appear to travel at the
phase velocity.
• The phase velocity is given in terms of the
wave's angular frequency ω and wave vector k
by
Group velocity
Group velocity of a wave is the velocity with which the
variations in the shape of the wave's amplitude (known as the
modulation or envelope of the wave) propagate through
space.
The group velocity is defined by the equation

where:
vg is the group velocity;
ω is the wave's angular frequency;
k is the wave number.
The function ω(k), which gives ω as a function of k, is known as the
dispersion relation.
Velocity of De-Broglie Waves-Phase
velocity
• Moving material particle-De broglie said a
wave is associated which travel with the
same velocity as that of the wave.

• Let De-broglie wave velocity is Vp, so


Vp =

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