Darwin Term
Thus, the Darwin term affects only the s-orbit. For example it gives the 2s-orbit the same energy as the 2p-orbit by raising the 2s-state by 9.057×10−5 eV.
The Darwin term changes the effective potential at the nucleus. It can be interpreted as a smearing out of the electrostatic interaction between the electron and nucleus due to zitterbewegung, or rapid quantum oscillations, of the electron.
Another mechanism that affects only the s-state is the Lamb shift. The reader should not confuse the Darwin term with the Lamb shift. The Darwin term makes the s-state and p-state the same energy, but the Lamb shift makes the s-state higher in energy than the p-state.
Read more about this topic: Fine Structure
Famous quotes containing the words darwin and/or term:
“It was at a particular moment in the history of my own rages that I saw the Western world conditioned by the images of Marx, Darwin and Freud; and Marx, Darwin and Freud are the three most crashing bores of the Western world. The simplistic popularization of their ideas has thrust our world into a mental straitjacket from which we can only escape by the most anarchic violence.”
—William Golding (b. 1911)
“One man isn’t any better than another, not because they are equal, but because they are intrinsically other, that there is no term of comparison.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)