Abstract
In this chapter, we take into account that the electron spin is associated with a magnetic moment, which interacts with other moments, charges, and fluxes in the system. More broadly, we introduce relativistic effects. We first introduce the single electron spin–orbit Hamiltonian. We then complement the hydrogenic Hamiltonian with the spin–orbit interaction as a perturbation. For hydrogen, all relativistic energy contributions can be estimated by first-order perturbation theory. For one-electron systems, the spin–orbit interaction leads to modifications to the energies found in chapter 1, and some degeneracies are broken. After having introduced the effect for the hydrogen, we generalise it to multielectron atoms.
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References
H.A. Bethe, E.E. Salpeter, Quantum Mechanics of One- and Two-Electron Atoms (Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1957)
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Kastberg, A. (2020). The Spin–Orbit Interaction. In: Structure of Multielectron Atoms. Springer Series on Atomic, Optical, and Plasma Physics, vol 112. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36420-5_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36420-5_4
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Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-36418-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-36420-5
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