Definition of wave packet in US English:

noun

• A group of superposed waves which together form a traveling localized disturbance, especially one described by Schrödinger's equation and regarded as representing a particle.

  Example sentences

  • ‘And when they repeated the experiment without interactions between the atoms, they saw obvious evidence for spreading of the wave packet.’
  • ‘For Raymer, the experiment was impressive because it produced single photons in well defined wave packets.’
  • ‘In other words, a real understanding of the position tentatively espoused depends upon a solution to another great problem in the foundations of quantum mechanics: the problem of reduction of the wave packet.’
  • ‘For example, the phase velocity of a wave packet is a pseudo process but the group velocity is a causal process; yet both licence reliable predictions.’
  • ‘Experiments in the 1980s, however, showed that it was possible for the peak of a wave packet to arrive sooner than it would had it travelled at c.’