Nadine Philippot
Louis de Broglie
Born: August 15th, 1892 Died: March 19, 1987
Louis Victor Pierre Raymond duc de Broglie, was born on August 15th, 1892 in Dieppe, France. Louis’ father was Victor, Duc de Broglie (a man of French Nobility with a long family history consisting of politicians, diplomats and high-ranking soldiers) and his mother was Pauline d’Armaillé. Louis studied at the Lycée Janson de Sailly in Paris until 1909 and then the University of Sorbonne to pursue an interest in literary studies and history. In 1910, he graduated with an Arts degree; however, he found himself intrigued by physics and mathematics. By 1913, at the age of 21, Louis de Broglie gained his second degree, this time in science. Unfortunately, before he could obtain a career in science, he was conscripted for military service for the French army during World War I and was posted to the wireless telegraphy section stationed at the Eiffel Tower. For the duration of the war de Broglie would spend his spare time pondering about technical problems. After the war, de Broglie continued with his studies in general physics. During the 1920’s, de Broglie spent a large amount of time observing his much older brother Maurice. Maurice was a scientist as well and was experimenting with x- rays for period of time following the war. Louis enjoyed observing his brother as he worked in his private laboratory located in the family home. It was around this time that de Broglie began to work on his doctoral thesis Recherches sur la théorie des quanta (Researches on the quantum theory). In 1924, Louis de Broglie delivered his thesis on Researches on the quantum theory to the Faculty of Sciences at Paris University. The thesis itself contained a series of significant findings that de Broglie had found within the course of two years. His work focused on the idea that if light can behave as a particle, then particles should be able to behave as waves. De Broglie was convinced that Einstein’s discovery of wave/particle duality in the theory of light quanta was general and that it extended to the entire physical world. Thus, he proposed that the propagation of a wave can be associated with the motion of a particle, whether it be a photon, electron or proton. He then proceeded by assigning a frequency to the wave that accompanied the particle through space and time. De Broglie called these waves “pilot” waves, guiding the particle in motion. His next objective was to relate the waves with the actual motion of the particle and then measure the wave. Eventually, de Broglie was able to come up with a mathematical equation describing his ideas which were centered on an analogy with photons. Starting with Einstein’s equation E=mc2, de Broglie was able to substitute the key components of the equation and create his own formula: h/p = λ (photons) He then proposed that this was not only true for photons, but for electrons and all other particles. The idea at the time seemed ridiculous to most physicists; however, it only took a few years to confirm de Broglie’s theory. Wave mechanics was born and in 1929 de Broglie was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work. After receiving his doctorate, de Broglie worked at the University of Sorbonne for two years. In 1928, he was appointed to teach theoretical physics at the Institut Henri Nadine Philippot
Poincaré and in 1932 he became a professor of theoretical physics at the Sorbonne. During the 1930’s to 50’s, de Broglie continued to study different extensions of wave mechanic’s. Some of the topics he researched include: Dirac’s electron theory, the new theory of light and the application of wave mechanics to nuclear physics. De Broglie retired from teaching in 1962 at the age of 70. Besides winning the Nobel Prize in 1929, de Broglie was also awarded the Henri Poincaré medal. In 1932, he was awarded with the Albert I of Monaco prize, and received the first Kalinga Prize in 1952 for his efforts explaining the aspects of modern physics to the layman. De Broglie was also awarded with the gold medal of the French National Scientific Research Centre in 1956. Louis de Broglie was elected as a member of the Academy of Science of the French Institute in 1933, and became the Permanent Secretary for the mathematical science in 1942. He was an officer of the Order of Leopold of Belgium and was an honorary doctor of the Universities of Athens, Brussels, Bucharest, Lausanne, Quebec and Warsaw. De Broglie was also a member of eighteen foreign academies throughout Europe, India, and the United States. Some of his most important publications include: Researches on the quantum theory (1924), Waves and motions (1926), Wave mechanics (1928), Non-linear Wave Mechanics: A causal Interpretation (1960), Introduction to the Vigier Theory of elementary particles (1961), and the Current Interpretation of Wave Mechanics: A Critical Study (1964).
Louis de Broglie never married, nor did he have any children. He died on March 19, 1987.
References
Google search: Louis de Broglie, 74,200 pages Bison search: Louis de Broglie (author), 22 titles
Books: Louis de Broglie by M.A. Tonnelat New Perspectives in Physics by Louis de Broglie Introducing Quantum Theory by J.P. McEvoy and Oscar Zarate Revolution by Louis de Broglie
Internet web sites: http://nobelprize.org/physics/laureates/1929/broglie-bio.html http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/Mathematicians/Broglie.html http://www.spaceandmotion.com/quantum-theory-de-broglie-quotes.htm http://www.britannica.com/nobel/micro/87_61.html http://www.launc.tased.edu.au/online/sciences/physics/debroglie.html