Hund's rulesIn atomic physics, Hund's rules refers to a set of rules that German physicist Friedrich Hund formulated around 1925, which are used to determine the term symbol that corresponds to the ground state of a multi-electron atom. The first rule is especially important in chemistry, where it is often referred to simply as Hund's Rule. The three rules are: For a given electron configuration, the term with maximum multiplicity has the lowest energy. The multiplicity is equal to , where is the total spin angular momentum for all electrons.
Moseley's lawMoseley's law is an empirical law concerning the characteristic X-rays emitted by atoms. The law had been discovered and published by the English physicist Henry Moseley in 1913–1914. Until Moseley's work, "atomic number" was merely an element's place in the periodic table and was not known to be associated with any measurable physical quantity.
Tensor operatorIn pure and applied mathematics, quantum mechanics and computer graphics, a tensor operator generalizes the notion of operators which are scalars and vectors. A special class of these are spherical tensor operators which apply the notion of the spherical basis and spherical harmonics. The spherical basis closely relates to the description of angular momentum in quantum mechanics and spherical harmonic functions. The coordinate-free generalization of a tensor operator is known as a representation operator.
Van Vleck paramagnetismIn condensed matter and atomic physics, Van Vleck paramagnetism refers to a positive and temperature-independent contribution to the magnetic susceptibility of a material, derived from second order corrections to the Zeeman interaction. The quantum mechanical theory was developed by John Hasbrouck Van Vleck between the 1920s and the 1930s to explain the magnetic response of gaseous nitric oxide (NO) and of rare-earth salts.
Autler–Townes effectIn spectroscopy, the Autler–Townes effect (also known as AC Stark effect), is a dynamical Stark effect corresponding to the case when an oscillating electric field (e.g., that of a laser) is tuned in resonance (or close) to the transition frequency of a given spectral line, and resulting in a change of the shape of the absorption/emission spectra of that spectral line. The AC Stark effect was discovered in 1955 by American physicists Stanley Autler and Charles Townes.
History of quantum mechanicsThe history of quantum mechanics is a fundamental part of the history of modern physics. The major chapters of this history begin with the emergence of quantum ideas to explain individual phenomena -- blackbody radiation, the photoelectric effect, solar emission spectra -- an era called the Old or Older quantum theories. The invention of wave mechanics by Schrodinger and expanded by many others triggers the "modern" era beginning around 1925.
Stern–Gerlach experimentIn quantum physics, the Stern–Gerlach experiment demonstrated that the spatial orientation of angular momentum is quantized. Thus an atomic-scale system was shown to have intrinsically quantum properties. In the original experiment, silver atoms were sent through a spatially-varying magnetic field, which deflected them before they struck a detector screen, such as a glass slide. Particles with non-zero magnetic moment were deflected, owing to the magnetic field gradient, from a straight path.
NeutronThe neutron is a subatomic particle, symbol _Neutron or _Neutron0, which has a neutral (not positive or negative) charge, and a mass slightly greater than that of a proton. Protons and neutrons constitute the nuclei of atoms. Since protons and neutrons behave similarly within the nucleus, and each has a mass of approximately one dalton, they are both referred to as nucleons. Their properties and interactions are described by nuclear physics. Protons and neutrons are not elementary particles; each is composed of three quarks.
Spin magnetic momentIn physics, mainly quantum mechanics and particle physics, a spin magnetic moment is the magnetic moment caused by the spin of elementary particles. For example, the electron is an elementary spin-1/2 fermion. Quantum electrodynamics gives the most accurate prediction of the anomalous magnetic moment of the electron. In general, a magnetic moment can be defined in terms of an electric current and the area enclosed by the current loop.
Landé g-factorIn physics, the Landé g-factor is a particular example of a g-factor, namely for an electron with both spin and orbital angular momenta. It is named after Alfred Landé, who first described it in 1921. In atomic physics, the Landé g-factor is a multiplicative term appearing in the expression for the energy levels of an atom in a weak magnetic field. The quantum states of electrons in atomic orbitals are normally degenerate in energy, with these degenerate states all sharing the same angular momentum.
