Work

One hundred years ago Alfred Landé unriddled the Anomalous Zeeman Effect and presaged electron spin

Year: 2022

Type: article

Abstract: In order to commemorate Alfred Landé’s unriddling of the anomalous Zeeman Effect a century ago, we reconstruct his seminal contribution to atomic physics in light of the atomic models available at the time. Landé recognized that the coupling of quantized electronic angular momenta via their vector addition within an atom was the origin of all the apparent mysteries of atomic structure as manifested by the anomalous Zeeman effect. We show to which extent Landé’s ideas influenced the development of quantum physics, particularly Wolfgang Pauli’s path to the exclusion principle. We conclude with Landé’s brief biography.

Source: Physica Scripta

DOI: 10.1088/1402-4896/ac9c9b

Authors: Horst Schmidt-Böcking, Gernot Gruber, Bretislav Friedrich

Institutions: Goethe University Frankfurt, Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society

Language: English

Topic: History of Science and Medicine

Subfield: History and Philosophy of Science

Field: Arts and Humanities

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $2,115

Funders: Smithsonian Institution, Institute for Theoretical Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, Harvard University, Department of Physics, Harvard University