Abstract
The stationary energies and wave functions of an atom are obtained by diagonalizing its Hamiltonian. This diagonalization is carried out here in the state space associated with an electronic configuration. Insofar as the Hamiltonian only involves kinetic and potential energy terms, it commutes with the atom’s orbital and spin angular momentum operators. In simple cases this yields a good approximation for atomic wave functions and energies, the latter being expressed with respect to the average energy of the configuration. Eventually, coupling terms between spin and orbital angular momenta are added to the Hamiltonian, as well as interaction terms with an external magnetic field. Degeneracy of atomic energies is then completely removed.
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© 2002 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Marchildon, L. (2002). Atomic Terms and Multiplets. In: Quantum Mechanics. Advanced Texts in Physics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-04750-7_18
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-04750-7_18
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-07767-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-662-04750-7
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