On the relativistic doublets of spectral lines

✍ Scribed by R.H. Penfield; H. Zatzkis

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1958
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 295 KB
• Volume: 265
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0016-0032
• DOI: 10.1016/0016-0032(58)90433-2

✦ Synopsis

The splitting of the energy levels predicted by the Dirac equation for a particle moving in a central field is determined. The relativistic effects consist of (1) a common displacement of the energy levels, and (2) a split into doublets for all states whose angular momentum is not zero. This first effect is, of course, difficult to access experimentally while the second is more readily verified by experiment. The calculations are based on a method which treats the relativistic effects as a perturbation and final expressions are given for the level splitting in the special case of the harmonic oscillator and the rigid rotator.