1 00:00:00,050 --> 00:00:01,770 The following content is provided 2 00:00:01,770 --> 00:00:04,010 under a Creative Commons license. 3 00:00:04,010 --> 00:00:06,860 Your support will help MIT OpenCourseWare continue 4 00:00:06,860 --> 00:00:10,720 to offer high quality educational resources for free. 5 00:00:10,720 --> 00:00:13,330 | make a donation or view additional materials 6 00:00:13,330 --> 00:00:15,770 from hundreds of MIT courses, visit 7 00:00:15,770 --> 00:00:17,827 MIT OpenCourseWare at ocw.mit.edu. 8 00:00:20,660 --> 00:00:23,590 PROFESSOR: Good afternoon. 9 00:00:23,590 --> 00:00:30,780 So last week, we started our discussion of atoms. 10 00:00:30,780 --> 00:00:33,210 So these are, of course, the key players 11 00:00:33,210 --> 00:00:35,740 in a course of atomic physics. 12 00:00:35,740 --> 00:00:40,120 And we will reveal the structure of atoms going from the larger 13 00:00:40,120 --> 00:00:43,120 energies to the smaller energies. 14 00:00:43,120 --> 00:00:46,940 That means we start with electronic energies mainly 15 00:00:46,940 --> 00:00:48,960 determined by Coulomb energy. 16 00:00:48,960 --> 00:00:50,820 And then we go to finer levels which 17 00:00:50,820 --> 00:00:53,780 are fine structure, hyperfine structure, Lamb shift, and all 18 00:00:53,780 --> 00:00:55,300 that. 19 00:00:55,300 --> 00:01:01,670 So we have started last week to discuss the Schrodinger 20 00:01:01,670 --> 00:01:04,970 equation, discuss hydrogenic energy levels, 21 00:01:04,970 --> 00:01:11,440 and I pointed out some important results on typical length 22 00:01:11,440 --> 00:01:14,450 scales and the scaling of the wave function. 23 00:01:14,450 --> 00:01:17,060 We will meet that later today. 24 00:01:17,060 --> 00:01:20,250 But before I continue with atomic structure, 25 00:01:20,250 --> 00:01:26,060 I want to start today to discuss the units. 26 00:01:26,060 --> 00:01:30,860 The atomic units we are using to describe the atom. 27 00:01:30,860 --> 00:01:38,640 So the nat-- and for every problem in physics, 28 00:01:38,640 --> 00:01:42,240 you have what one may call natural units. 29 00:01:44,850 --> 00:01:51,680 And for us these are also called the atomic units. 30 00:01:51,680 --> 00:01:53,200 So what are atomic units? 31 00:01:53,200 --> 00:01:57,850 Well, atomic units are the units for length, for energy, 32 00:01:57,850 --> 00:02:00,310 for velocity, for electric field. 33 00:02:00,310 --> 00:02:03,850 And all of these units, you should 34 00:02:03,850 --> 00:02:07,960 be able to construct them out of fundamental constants. 35 00:02:07,960 --> 00:02:11,440 The fundamental constants which appear in the Schrodinger 36 00:02:11,440 --> 00:02:15,610 equation for the electron within the atom 37 00:02:15,610 --> 00:02:22,190 are the charge of the electron, the mass of the electron, 38 00:02:22,190 --> 00:02:22,690 and h-bar. 39 00:02:25,430 --> 00:02:28,760 Now, is there any other fundamental constant 40 00:02:28,760 --> 00:02:33,395 we should include here to construct our natural units? 41 00:02:37,330 --> 00:02:40,110 c, good question. 42 00:02:40,110 --> 00:02:42,368 What about c? 43 00:02:42,368 --> 00:02:44,910 The speed of light. 44 00:02:44,910 --> 00:02:48,090 Should the speed of light be part 45 00:02:48,090 --> 00:02:50,930 of our system of atomic units? 46 00:03:00,130 --> 00:03:01,060 Let's not go there. 47 00:03:01,060 --> 00:03:02,520 [LAUGHTER] 48 00:03:02,520 --> 00:03:06,150 Because if you set it to one, you have made a choice. 49 00:03:06,150 --> 00:03:08,440 You have constrained your system. 50 00:03:08,440 --> 00:03:12,030 And you're almost obscuring the fact whether it should appear 51 00:03:12,030 --> 00:03:13,330 or not. 52 00:03:13,330 --> 00:03:15,710 Well, the strong message I want to give you 53 00:03:15,710 --> 00:03:19,232 is at the level of electronic structure, 54 00:03:19,232 --> 00:03:20,940 at the level of the Schrodinger equation, 55 00:03:20,940 --> 00:03:22,600 it should not be there. 56 00:03:22,600 --> 00:03:25,230 Because we are talking at this point 57 00:03:25,230 --> 00:03:27,680 about solutions of the Schrodinger 58 00:03:27,680 --> 00:03:30,190 equation, the hydrogenic levels. 59 00:03:30,190 --> 00:03:33,720 And there is no c, no speed of light in the Schrodinger 60 00:03:33,720 --> 00:03:34,980 equation. 61 00:03:34,980 --> 00:03:39,830 So c is not part of the fundamental constants 62 00:03:39,830 --> 00:03:42,780 we have to consider now. 63 00:03:42,780 --> 00:03:45,870 It will later come in the fine-structure constant, 64 00:03:45,870 --> 00:03:47,870 but this is a different story. 65 00:03:47,870 --> 00:03:51,750 So we have three units, e, m, and c. 66 00:03:51,750 --> 00:03:55,360 And you can just play the game of combinatorics 67 00:03:55,360 --> 00:03:59,480 and see can you find a length which 68 00:03:59,480 --> 00:04:01,520 consists of those three units. 69 00:04:01,520 --> 00:04:06,030 And, well, it's h squared, m over e squared. 70 00:04:06,030 --> 00:04:09,200 This is how you get the unit of length. 71 00:04:09,200 --> 00:04:13,930 And this length is called the Bohr radius. 72 00:04:13,930 --> 00:04:17,860 And indeed, this is sort of the RMS size 73 00:04:17,860 --> 00:04:21,165 of the electron in the 1s state. 74 00:04:21,165 --> 00:04:24,830 You can play the game again and ask, 75 00:04:24,830 --> 00:04:29,460 can we construct an energy? 76 00:04:29,460 --> 00:04:35,050 Well, you find that if you take e to the four, 77 00:04:35,050 --> 00:04:39,560 if you take the mass and finally divide by h square, 78 00:04:39,560 --> 00:04:42,910 then you have a unit of energy. 79 00:04:42,910 --> 00:04:47,310 And this unit of energy turns out 80 00:04:47,310 --> 00:04:55,930 to be one Hartree or 27.2 electron volts or two Rydbergs, 81 00:04:55,930 --> 00:04:59,690 twice the binding energy of the electron in the 1s state. 82 00:04:59,690 --> 00:05:02,900 And we had some discussion last week that the factor of two 83 00:05:02,900 --> 00:05:05,600 reflects the virial theorem. 84 00:05:05,600 --> 00:05:08,380 This is actually that one Hartree is the Coulomb energy 85 00:05:08,380 --> 00:05:12,340 of the electron in the 1s state, which is the binding energy. 86 00:05:12,340 --> 00:05:14,690 But then half of it is kinetic energy. 87 00:05:14,690 --> 00:05:18,010 And, therefore, the total energy of the 1s electron 88 00:05:18,010 --> 00:05:20,950 is half the Coulomb energy. 89 00:05:20,950 --> 00:05:23,570 And it's that. 90 00:05:23,570 --> 00:05:25,350 But no. 91 00:05:25,350 --> 00:05:28,150 OK, so, so far no c. 92 00:05:28,150 --> 00:05:32,190 The energy, the energy levels, the wave function. 93 00:05:32,190 --> 00:05:34,810 If there is no c, no speed of light in the Schrodinger 94 00:05:34,810 --> 00:05:38,070 equation, there is no c in the solution of the Schrodinger 95 00:05:38,070 --> 00:05:40,540 equation. 96 00:05:40,540 --> 00:05:43,510 And if you set it 1, sure, it wouldn't-- I mean, 97 00:05:43,510 --> 00:05:45,790 if your relativity equation said c equals 1, 98 00:05:45,790 --> 00:05:46,740 you obscure the fact. 99 00:05:46,740 --> 00:05:50,070 But here, it's definitely not there. 100 00:05:50,070 --> 00:05:52,485 But now we can also see, well, there 101 00:05:52,485 --> 00:05:56,120 are other important energies. 102 00:05:56,120 --> 00:05:59,350 One energy, and now I bring in the c 103 00:05:59,350 --> 00:06:01,570 just because I want to compare two energies which 104 00:06:01,570 --> 00:06:05,820 include the speed of light, the rest energy of the electron. 105 00:06:05,820 --> 00:06:12,820 Or a very fundamental unit of length is h-bar over mc. 106 00:06:12,820 --> 00:06:16,460 Which is the Compton wavelengths. 107 00:06:16,460 --> 00:06:19,230 So that's lambda Compton, the Compton wavelengths 108 00:06:19,230 --> 00:06:21,540 of the electron. 109 00:06:21,540 --> 00:06:26,320 And, well, if we try to figure out 110 00:06:26,320 --> 00:06:30,440 what is the ratio of the atomic unit of lengths. 111 00:06:30,440 --> 00:06:37,310 And the Compton radius, we have to multiply 112 00:06:37,310 --> 00:06:41,420 with a dimensionless unit which is hc over e squared. 113 00:06:41,420 --> 00:06:46,430 Or if I take the reverse, e squared over hc, h-bar c. 114 00:06:46,430 --> 00:06:52,130 And similarly, here the dimensionless quantity 115 00:06:52,130 --> 00:06:55,110 to multiply is that. 116 00:06:55,110 --> 00:07:02,690 So what do we find now here is we find that what we get 117 00:07:02,690 --> 00:07:05,944 is a quantity which I want to call alpha, 118 00:07:05,944 --> 00:07:07,110 the fine-structure constant. 119 00:07:09,620 --> 00:07:17,210 And what I find here is the same constant, alpha to the minus 1, 120 00:07:17,210 --> 00:07:18,795 times the Compton wavelengths. 121 00:07:24,092 --> 00:07:26,470 Let me discuss the fine-structure constant 122 00:07:26,470 --> 00:07:30,750 in a second, but there's still two more atomic units 123 00:07:30,750 --> 00:07:32,330 we want to discuss. 124 00:07:32,330 --> 00:07:36,280 There is the velocity and there is the electric field. 125 00:07:40,910 --> 00:07:44,290 I can simply get the velocity by saying, well, 126 00:07:44,290 --> 00:07:47,720 the velocity enters the kinetic energy in mv square. 127 00:07:47,720 --> 00:07:51,670 And if I said mv square, I want to skip all factors of unity. 128 00:07:51,670 --> 00:07:54,530 So that's not one half, it's just mv square. 129 00:07:54,530 --> 00:08:02,280 And if I said mv square equal to one Hartree, 130 00:08:02,280 --> 00:08:07,260 then I find that the atomic unit of velocity 131 00:08:07,260 --> 00:08:09,080 is e squared over h-bar. 132 00:08:12,350 --> 00:08:18,960 But this turns out to be alpha times c. 133 00:08:18,960 --> 00:08:22,780 So again, what we find is alpha, the fine-structure constant. 134 00:08:26,690 --> 00:08:30,630 Alpha is, of course, dimensionless. 135 00:08:30,630 --> 00:08:37,809 It is 1/137. 136 00:08:37,809 --> 00:08:45,300 So therefore, we see that if the velocity-- and this is actually 137 00:08:45,300 --> 00:08:48,200 the orbital velocity of the 1s electron. 138 00:08:48,200 --> 00:08:52,190 If this is alpha times c that confirms 139 00:08:52,190 --> 00:08:56,379 that the electron non-relativistic. 140 00:08:56,379 --> 00:08:58,337 We have solved the non-relativistic Schrodinger 141 00:08:58,337 --> 00:09:00,050 equation for it. 142 00:09:00,050 --> 00:09:05,800 And consistently, we find that the velocity of the electron 143 00:09:05,800 --> 00:09:11,072 is 1/137 of the speed of light. 144 00:09:11,072 --> 00:09:12,280 It's actually physics trivia. 145 00:09:12,280 --> 00:09:14,820 If somebody asks you how fast is the electron 146 00:09:14,820 --> 00:09:19,640 in the hydrogen atom, about 1% of the speed of light. 147 00:09:19,640 --> 00:09:23,825 Of course, if you had solved the non-relativistic Schrodinger 148 00:09:23,825 --> 00:09:25,170 equation. 149 00:09:25,170 --> 00:09:31,050 And you solve it for, let's say, a naked uranium nucleus 150 00:09:31,050 --> 00:09:37,500 where z, the charge of the nucleus, is 92, 151 00:09:37,500 --> 00:09:42,390 then you find that this fine-structure constant times 152 00:09:42,390 --> 00:09:43,930 z is on the order of unity. 153 00:09:43,930 --> 00:09:48,490 You would find that the electron moves at the speed of light. 154 00:09:48,490 --> 00:09:51,190 And then you realize, gosh, I've solved the wrong equation. 155 00:09:51,190 --> 00:09:53,230 Because a non-relativistic Schrodinger equation 156 00:09:53,230 --> 00:09:54,885 when the solution is that something 157 00:09:54,885 --> 00:09:56,620 moves at the speed of light, I'd better 158 00:09:56,620 --> 00:09:59,270 start with a different equation. 159 00:09:59,270 --> 00:10:01,590 But here, we find we are consistent. 160 00:10:01,590 --> 00:10:11,830 An electron in the hydrogen atom for low nuclear charges 161 00:10:11,830 --> 00:10:16,650 of a few hydrogen, helium, and so on is non-relativistic. 162 00:10:16,650 --> 00:10:18,720 So let's just finish that. 163 00:10:18,720 --> 00:10:22,610 The electric field is the electric field 164 00:10:22,610 --> 00:10:26,360 felt by the electron which orbits 165 00:10:26,360 --> 00:10:30,210 the nucleus on the 1s shell. 166 00:10:30,210 --> 00:10:38,900 And this is 5.1 times 10 to the 9 volts per centimeter. 167 00:10:38,900 --> 00:10:43,080 So everything I've constructed here out of the three 168 00:10:43,080 --> 00:10:45,990 fundamental constants, e, m, and h 169 00:10:45,990 --> 00:10:48,720 are typical for the 1s electron for the ground 170 00:10:48,720 --> 00:10:50,280 state of hydrogen. 171 00:10:50,280 --> 00:10:53,460 We got the typical lengths, the Bohr radius, 172 00:10:53,460 --> 00:10:57,710 the typical energy, the Hartree, the typical velocity, 173 00:10:57,710 --> 00:11:04,770 which doesn't have a name, and the electric field 174 00:11:04,770 --> 00:11:08,490 experienced by this electron. 175 00:11:08,490 --> 00:11:11,955 So let's now talk about alpha. 176 00:11:14,590 --> 00:11:17,720 So alpha is dimensionless. 177 00:11:21,520 --> 00:11:25,990 It is, you know, if a constant has dimension like h-bar, 178 00:11:25,990 --> 00:11:30,860 like c, actually the value of it reflects 179 00:11:30,860 --> 00:11:32,550 our system of metrology. 180 00:11:32,550 --> 00:11:35,080 If you define the second in a different way, 181 00:11:35,080 --> 00:11:36,790 h-bar will change. 182 00:11:36,790 --> 00:11:38,920 c will change. 183 00:11:38,920 --> 00:11:44,290 So a lot of constants are not fundamental constants, 184 00:11:44,290 --> 00:11:46,910 being fundamental to the physics at hand. 185 00:11:46,910 --> 00:11:49,300 They are more kind of translating 186 00:11:49,300 --> 00:11:52,730 our metrological system into the equations 187 00:11:52,730 --> 00:11:55,330 we use to describe our system. 188 00:11:55,330 --> 00:11:58,030 But if something has no dimension, 189 00:11:58,030 --> 00:12:02,920 it is not related to a unit like the kilogram or the second, 190 00:12:02,920 --> 00:12:07,000 it has really fundamental importance. 191 00:12:07,000 --> 00:12:11,550 So, therefore, alpha is the fundamental constant 192 00:12:11,550 --> 00:12:12,445 in atomic physics. 193 00:12:22,650 --> 00:12:27,660 And if you have a fundamental constant, 194 00:12:27,660 --> 00:12:33,490 ultimately, there should be a theory of everything 195 00:12:33,490 --> 00:12:39,680 which should ultimately predict the value of alpha. 196 00:12:39,680 --> 00:12:49,880 Which, ultimately, we predicted by a complete theory. 197 00:12:54,840 --> 00:13:03,900 So alpha, the fine-structure constant, is smaller than 1. 198 00:13:03,900 --> 00:13:06,910 It's 1/137. 199 00:13:06,910 --> 00:13:10,840 And the fact that alpha is smaller like 1 200 00:13:10,840 --> 00:13:17,230 is often phrased in these words. 201 00:13:17,230 --> 00:13:20,990 That since alpha is much smaller than 1 202 00:13:20,990 --> 00:13:29,230 that this implies the electromagnetic interactions 203 00:13:29,230 --> 00:13:29,750 are weak. 204 00:13:34,820 --> 00:13:36,960 OK, I want to explain that. 205 00:13:36,960 --> 00:13:39,240 I mean, I've heard this many, many times. 206 00:13:39,240 --> 00:13:42,240 But what does it mean interactions are weak? 207 00:13:42,240 --> 00:13:46,300 So let me give you sort of my, in 90 seconds, 208 00:13:46,300 --> 00:13:47,840 sort of my spiel on it. 209 00:13:47,840 --> 00:13:50,735 Why does alpha mean that the electromagnetic interactions 210 00:13:50,735 --> 00:13:52,570 are weak? 211 00:13:52,570 --> 00:13:56,190 Well, we have to compare the electromagnetic interaction 212 00:13:56,190 --> 00:13:57,210 to something else. 213 00:13:57,210 --> 00:14:01,120 And the result will be for this situation I create, 214 00:14:01,120 --> 00:14:03,010 the electromagnetic interactions are weak. 215 00:14:13,070 --> 00:14:15,160 Electromagnetic interactions of the Coulomb field 216 00:14:15,160 --> 00:14:17,410 gets, of course, stronger, and stronger, 217 00:14:17,410 --> 00:14:20,960 and stronger the closer you move two charges together. 218 00:14:20,960 --> 00:14:24,580 So what does it mean that the Coulomb interaction is weak? 219 00:14:24,580 --> 00:14:27,750 Weaker compared to strong interactions 220 00:14:27,750 --> 00:14:29,370 or other interactions. 221 00:14:29,370 --> 00:14:34,680 Well, let me try to justify it as follows. 222 00:14:34,680 --> 00:14:41,210 We cannot go to epitary small distances. 223 00:14:41,210 --> 00:14:42,870 We can do it in classical physics, 224 00:14:42,870 --> 00:14:45,250 but not in quantum physics. 225 00:14:45,250 --> 00:14:47,390 So if you go to very small distances, 226 00:14:47,390 --> 00:14:50,740 if you localize particles very tightly, 227 00:14:50,740 --> 00:14:52,520 they have a lot of momentum uncertainty. 228 00:14:52,520 --> 00:14:55,430 The momentum uncertainty means energy uncertainty. 229 00:14:55,430 --> 00:14:57,650 And the energy uncertainty may mean 230 00:14:57,650 --> 00:15:01,040 that we can create electrons and positron pairs. 231 00:15:01,040 --> 00:15:04,230 So the moment we have an energy uncertainty, 232 00:15:04,230 --> 00:15:08,390 by our definition of bringing two particles close together, 233 00:15:08,390 --> 00:15:12,130 and this energy uncertainty is larger than the rest mass, 234 00:15:12,130 --> 00:15:13,380 we have to be very careful. 235 00:15:13,380 --> 00:15:16,630 We can no longer use a single particle description, 236 00:15:16,630 --> 00:15:18,980 or our concept of single particle physics 237 00:15:18,980 --> 00:15:22,560 breaks down if you have seen the particles prepared 238 00:15:22,560 --> 00:15:25,210 with an energy uncertainty, which would spontaneously 239 00:15:25,210 --> 00:15:27,100 create more particles. 240 00:15:27,100 --> 00:15:35,740 So therefore, let me postulate that our picture 241 00:15:35,740 --> 00:15:38,050 how we think about those interactions, 242 00:15:38,050 --> 00:15:41,390 arranging two charges and writing down 243 00:15:41,390 --> 00:15:43,430 what the Coulomb energy is. 244 00:15:43,430 --> 00:15:57,730 That if energy uncertainties become on the order of the rest 245 00:15:57,730 --> 00:16:09,470 energy, then the concept of single particles breaks down. 246 00:16:16,500 --> 00:16:18,490 Of course, that's not the end of physics. 247 00:16:18,490 --> 00:16:22,420 You need now a field theory for particles where particles 248 00:16:22,420 --> 00:16:23,923 are just excitations in your field. 249 00:16:26,620 --> 00:16:28,290 But here in atomic physics, you want 250 00:16:28,290 --> 00:16:31,550 to describe an electron bound to a nucleus. 251 00:16:31,550 --> 00:16:33,870 And we want to use those concepts. 252 00:16:33,870 --> 00:16:37,650 So let's just sort of say, what does it mean with delta e 253 00:16:37,650 --> 00:16:39,680 is mc squared? 254 00:16:39,680 --> 00:16:42,620 Well, that means the momentum uncertainty 255 00:16:42,620 --> 00:16:45,140 is on the order of mc. 256 00:16:45,140 --> 00:16:48,250 And with this momentum uncertainty, 257 00:16:48,250 --> 00:16:56,140 I can localize particles to within h-bar over mc. 258 00:16:56,140 --> 00:16:58,685 And this just turns out to be the Compton 259 00:16:58,685 --> 00:17:01,490 radius of the electron. 260 00:17:01,490 --> 00:17:03,960 So, therefore, I should be careful 261 00:17:03,960 --> 00:17:07,069 when I talk about the Coulomb energy between particles 262 00:17:07,069 --> 00:17:10,030 if I would go closer than the Compton radius. 263 00:17:10,030 --> 00:17:15,920 So, therefore, let me compare now the Coulomb interaction 264 00:17:15,920 --> 00:17:20,109 at the Compton radius to something else. 265 00:17:20,109 --> 00:17:24,170 So these Coulomb energy is e squared over the radius. 266 00:17:24,170 --> 00:17:26,270 The Compton radius. 267 00:17:26,270 --> 00:17:34,810 And this turns out to be e squared, mc over h-bar. 268 00:17:34,810 --> 00:17:39,370 So unless I want to get into quantum field 269 00:17:39,370 --> 00:17:49,230 theory of particles, before I need a different description, 270 00:17:49,230 --> 00:17:52,210 the strongest Coulomb interaction 271 00:17:52,210 --> 00:18:04,550 I can create by putting two particles at the Compton radius 272 00:18:04,550 --> 00:18:06,080 is that. 273 00:18:06,080 --> 00:18:09,780 And I can now compare this Coulomb interaction, 274 00:18:09,780 --> 00:18:16,020 the Coulomb energy, to the rest energy, mc squared. 275 00:18:16,020 --> 00:18:22,660 And, well, if I take what I had above, e squared mc over h-bar, 276 00:18:22,660 --> 00:18:25,150 I divide by mc squared. 277 00:18:25,150 --> 00:18:29,200 I find that e square, that the result, the ratio, 278 00:18:29,200 --> 00:18:33,880 is e squared over h-bar c. 279 00:18:33,880 --> 00:18:37,500 And this is just alpha. 280 00:18:37,500 --> 00:18:40,750 So in other words, what I've shown to you, if you 281 00:18:40,750 --> 00:18:43,450 try to bring two charges as close as 282 00:18:43,450 --> 00:18:47,900 possible before spontaneous pair production sets in, then 283 00:18:47,900 --> 00:18:51,410 you find that the Coulomb energy is not 284 00:18:51,410 --> 00:18:53,390 in the dominant energy in the system. 285 00:18:53,390 --> 00:18:56,000 The dominant energy is the rest energy, 286 00:18:56,000 --> 00:19:01,060 is the mass of the electron itself. 287 00:19:01,060 --> 00:19:04,820 And the ratio of those two energies at this point 288 00:19:04,820 --> 00:19:07,420 is, of course, completely independent of what 289 00:19:07,420 --> 00:19:10,670 metrological system you use for energy lengths and such. 290 00:19:10,670 --> 00:19:13,390 It's really something which says something fundamental 291 00:19:13,390 --> 00:19:15,720 about the nature of interaction. 292 00:19:15,720 --> 00:19:22,650 And what I just presented to you leads to the statement 293 00:19:22,650 --> 00:19:25,870 that the Coulomb interaction, the electromagnetic 294 00:19:25,870 --> 00:19:27,160 interaction, is weak. 295 00:19:27,160 --> 00:19:29,475 Because the fine-structure constant 296 00:19:29,475 --> 00:19:30,600 is much smaller than unity. 297 00:19:35,280 --> 00:19:42,680 Of course, if you use a nucleus of uranium, naked uranium, 298 00:19:42,680 --> 00:19:47,610 and people have ion traps where they create uranium 92 plus 299 00:19:47,610 --> 00:19:49,880 and then they add an electron, you're 300 00:19:49,880 --> 00:19:51,970 really studying very interesting physics. 301 00:19:51,970 --> 00:19:54,920 You're studying the physics of an electron for which 302 00:19:54,920 --> 00:19:57,130 the effective fine-structure constant is 303 00:19:57,130 --> 00:19:58,640 on the order of unity. 304 00:19:58,640 --> 00:20:00,640 And that's why people are very interested in it. 305 00:20:00,640 --> 00:20:04,210 And that's one area of current research. 306 00:20:09,070 --> 00:20:09,690 Any questions? 307 00:20:15,360 --> 00:20:20,330 OK, so that's our little excursion about units. 308 00:20:23,990 --> 00:20:32,010 Let's talk now about some general properties 309 00:20:32,010 --> 00:20:36,485 of one electron atoms with cores. 310 00:20:43,380 --> 00:20:46,820 A lot of research in our field is done with alkali atoms. 311 00:20:46,820 --> 00:20:52,070 Alkali atoms are not the hydrogen atom. 312 00:20:52,070 --> 00:20:54,450 But they have one outer electron. 313 00:20:54,450 --> 00:20:56,500 So they are hydrogen-like. 314 00:20:56,500 --> 00:21:01,230 And now we want to sort of figure out 315 00:21:01,230 --> 00:21:03,800 what is the main difference because 316 00:21:03,800 --> 00:21:06,650 for one outer electron in rubidium and sodium. 317 00:21:06,650 --> 00:21:11,030 And the electron in hydrogen. 318 00:21:11,030 --> 00:21:15,740 Well, if we have an electron. 319 00:21:15,740 --> 00:21:19,560 And this electron orbits around. 320 00:21:19,560 --> 00:21:29,700 In the alkali atom, there is an ionic core 321 00:21:29,700 --> 00:21:34,670 which has a charge of a z plus. 322 00:21:34,670 --> 00:21:38,370 But then in this sort of compact core, 323 00:21:38,370 --> 00:21:53,630 there are also c minus 1 electron. 324 00:21:53,630 --> 00:21:56,830 So the electron, the outer electron pretty much 325 00:21:56,830 --> 00:22:00,760 feels the electric field of a single charge, 326 00:22:00,760 --> 00:22:04,170 but there is a the of the core. 327 00:22:04,170 --> 00:22:09,960 So what I want to discuss with you is now 328 00:22:09,960 --> 00:22:15,410 what is the leading correction to the properties of this atom? 329 00:22:15,410 --> 00:22:17,840 What is the leading correction to the hydrogen-like wave 330 00:22:17,840 --> 00:22:22,356 function due to the fact that we have an ionic core and not 331 00:22:22,356 --> 00:22:22,855 a proton. 332 00:22:25,700 --> 00:22:33,850 So for hydrogen, we would have the Rydberg formula. 333 00:22:33,850 --> 00:22:47,520 that for principal quantum number n, the energy is-- oh, 334 00:22:47,520 --> 00:22:48,310 just one second. 335 00:22:57,460 --> 00:22:57,960 Yes. 336 00:23:12,480 --> 00:23:20,410 OK, the hydrogenic energy would be z squared 337 00:23:20,410 --> 00:23:25,375 times the Rydberg constant divided by n squared. 338 00:23:48,821 --> 00:23:52,980 I'm confused about the factor of z squared, which I clearly 339 00:23:52,980 --> 00:23:53,750 have in my notes. 340 00:24:09,565 --> 00:24:12,270 I have to read up something about it. 341 00:24:12,270 --> 00:24:15,840 Let me take it out here. 342 00:24:15,840 --> 00:24:18,500 You know, we have a charge of z. 343 00:24:18,500 --> 00:24:20,940 But what I'm talking about is one electron 344 00:24:20,940 --> 00:24:23,030 which is very far away from the nucleus. 345 00:24:23,030 --> 00:24:28,200 And this one electron fields, in effect, only a single charge. 346 00:24:28,200 --> 00:24:30,696 And so, ultimately, you would expect 347 00:24:30,696 --> 00:24:32,070 that the Rydberg spectrum, if you 348 00:24:32,070 --> 00:24:34,410 go to higher and higher end, would actually 349 00:24:34,410 --> 00:24:38,600 converge to the Rydberg spectrum of hydrogen which would not 350 00:24:38,600 --> 00:24:40,130 have the factor of z squared. 351 00:24:42,890 --> 00:24:46,830 I hope I'm not overlooking something, 352 00:24:46,830 --> 00:24:49,920 but I'm just correcting my notes on the fly. 353 00:24:49,920 --> 00:24:53,710 So this would simply be what an electron would 354 00:24:53,710 --> 00:24:56,420 do in the Coulomb field of a single charge. 355 00:24:56,420 --> 00:25:01,770 And the question is, what is the leading correction 356 00:25:01,770 --> 00:25:03,900 to this formula? 357 00:25:03,900 --> 00:25:07,670 And I want to ask it as a clicker question. 358 00:25:07,670 --> 00:25:18,540 So that's the effect, that we have an ionic core. 359 00:25:18,540 --> 00:25:22,020 Does it make a constant offset to the binding energy? 360 00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:31,805 Or does it make the correction which, 361 00:25:31,805 --> 00:25:33,590 of course, is 1 over n squared. 362 00:25:33,590 --> 00:25:37,540 This would just scale the overall spectrum. 363 00:25:37,540 --> 00:25:40,275 It would actually lead to a modified rescaled Rydberg 364 00:25:40,275 --> 00:25:40,775 constant. 365 00:25:43,410 --> 00:25:54,940 Or is the correction higher order in n? 366 00:25:54,940 --> 00:26:02,060 Or finally, is it a correction which 367 00:26:02,060 --> 00:26:05,812 changes the effective principle quantum number n? 368 00:26:09,590 --> 00:26:11,533 Maybe you know the answer or maybe you 369 00:26:11,533 --> 00:26:13,875 want to try to guess the answer. 370 00:26:13,875 --> 00:26:15,125 So these are the four choices. 371 00:26:32,130 --> 00:26:34,100 Of course delta has different units. 372 00:26:34,100 --> 00:26:39,590 I just used the same symbol for the correction term. 373 00:26:39,590 --> 00:26:44,490 But depending whether it appears it has units of energy 374 00:26:44,490 --> 00:26:47,580 or if it appears in the denominator with n, 375 00:26:47,580 --> 00:26:51,648 it is dimensionless. 376 00:26:51,648 --> 00:26:55,676 AUDIENCE: Aren't these questions also C and D [INAUDIBLE]? 377 00:26:55,676 --> 00:26:57,300 PROFESSOR: Yes, this is the first thing 378 00:26:57,300 --> 00:27:01,820 I wanted to tell you, that answers C and D are the same. 379 00:27:01,820 --> 00:27:04,380 Because if we assume delta is small 380 00:27:04,380 --> 00:27:07,220 and you do a Taylor expansion of the denominator, 381 00:27:07,220 --> 00:27:09,760 you just get this. 382 00:27:09,760 --> 00:27:11,670 So c and d are actually equivalent. 383 00:27:16,320 --> 00:27:21,160 And so if I add up 20 people voted 384 00:27:21,160 --> 00:27:26,430 for c and d, which is equivalent. 385 00:27:26,430 --> 00:27:31,550 So this is equivalent by Taylor expansion. 386 00:27:37,980 --> 00:27:43,990 And, indeed, this is also-- this time 387 00:27:43,990 --> 00:27:46,080 there's two correct answers. 388 00:27:46,080 --> 00:27:48,470 So let me quickly derive it. 389 00:27:48,470 --> 00:27:49,840 The derivation is short. 390 00:27:49,840 --> 00:27:53,270 And it adds some insight. 391 00:27:53,270 --> 00:27:56,005 We want to do perturbation theory. 392 00:27:58,750 --> 00:28:08,120 And in perturbation theory, we simply take 393 00:28:08,120 --> 00:28:12,660 the wave function of the simplified Hamiltonian 394 00:28:12,660 --> 00:28:14,495 and ask what is the energy correction 395 00:28:14,495 --> 00:28:19,840 due to the fact that we have a finite core size? 396 00:28:19,840 --> 00:28:29,230 Since the finite core is near r equals 0 at the origin, 397 00:28:29,230 --> 00:28:33,230 we only need the scaling of the wave function close 398 00:28:33,230 --> 00:28:35,410 to the origin. 399 00:28:35,410 --> 00:28:38,840 And this is r to the l. 400 00:28:38,840 --> 00:28:45,120 And we have n to the power 3/2, as we discussed last week. 401 00:28:45,120 --> 00:28:47,900 So our Hamiltonian is now the Hamiltonian 402 00:28:47,900 --> 00:28:53,260 of the hydrogen atom plus a perturbation term. 403 00:28:53,260 --> 00:28:56,520 And the perturbation term is the derivation 404 00:28:56,520 --> 00:29:01,480 of the potentially experienced by the outer electron, 405 00:29:01,480 --> 00:29:05,960 the deviation from a pure Coulomb potential. 406 00:29:05,960 --> 00:29:15,020 So the energy correction, en, is the expectation value 407 00:29:15,020 --> 00:29:22,860 of the hydrogenic wave function with the perturbation 408 00:29:22,860 --> 00:29:23,930 Hamiltonian. 409 00:29:23,930 --> 00:29:26,550 And the only thing we have to know about the perturbation 410 00:29:26,550 --> 00:29:31,600 Hamiltonian is that this Hamiltonian is 411 00:29:31,600 --> 00:29:38,500 localized around the origin. 412 00:29:38,500 --> 00:29:43,610 And then we immediately find because of the scaling 413 00:29:43,610 --> 00:29:49,590 of the wave function with n that this is 1/n cubed. 414 00:29:52,550 --> 00:29:58,320 And it's proportional. 415 00:29:58,320 --> 00:30:04,990 And by factoring out the Rydberg constant, 416 00:30:04,990 --> 00:30:08,480 I can parameterize this matrix element 417 00:30:08,480 --> 00:30:14,840 with a quantity, delta l, which is dimensionless. 418 00:30:14,840 --> 00:30:20,190 So that means that the binding energy 419 00:30:20,190 --> 00:30:30,140 is the hydrogenic binding energy plus this correction. 420 00:30:30,140 --> 00:30:33,510 And then to leading order in delta 421 00:30:33,510 --> 00:30:40,980 l, it's identical to this result. 422 00:30:40,980 --> 00:30:45,230 And this parameter, delta l, which 423 00:30:45,230 --> 00:30:50,080 is characterizing a whole Rydberg series for all n 424 00:30:50,080 --> 00:30:53,940 values for given l, this is called the quantum defect. 425 00:30:56,730 --> 00:30:59,260 So people realized early on in the early days 426 00:30:59,260 --> 00:31:01,600 of quantum mechanics before they understood it 427 00:31:01,600 --> 00:31:05,480 that the spectrum of many atoms followed 428 00:31:05,480 --> 00:31:09,790 a formula which was not 1/n squared is hydrogen. 429 00:31:09,790 --> 00:31:14,070 It was 1n minus delta l squared. 430 00:31:14,070 --> 00:31:15,470 They didn't understand it. 431 00:31:15,470 --> 00:31:17,490 But this is, of course, now the derivation. 432 00:31:26,620 --> 00:31:33,560 There are many other derivations which 433 00:31:33,560 --> 00:31:38,040 you may enjoy reading about it in our atomic physics wiki. 434 00:31:38,040 --> 00:31:42,340 There's a derivation using the semi-classical approach 435 00:31:42,340 --> 00:31:44,810 and using the very nice physical picture 436 00:31:44,810 --> 00:31:50,130 that an electron, when it comes close to the core, 437 00:31:50,130 --> 00:31:52,590 experiences scattering phase shift. 438 00:31:52,590 --> 00:31:55,020 And this scattering phase shift is directly related 439 00:31:55,020 --> 00:31:56,850 to the quantum defect. 440 00:31:56,850 --> 00:32:01,020 Or you can make a model Hamiltonian 441 00:32:01,020 --> 00:32:06,930 which is exactly solvable where the perturbation Hamiltonian is 442 00:32:06,930 --> 00:32:10,580 not completely localized at the core. 443 00:32:10,580 --> 00:32:14,100 But it's proportional to 1/r squared. 444 00:32:14,100 --> 00:32:16,230 And then you can exactly solve it 445 00:32:16,230 --> 00:32:18,200 because you have already a term which 446 00:32:18,200 --> 00:32:20,860 is 1/r squared in your Schrodinger equation. 447 00:32:20,860 --> 00:32:22,730 Which is the centrifugal term. 448 00:32:22,730 --> 00:32:25,790 So therefore, the perturbation is only 449 00:32:25,790 --> 00:32:28,580 redefining the centrifugal term. 450 00:32:28,580 --> 00:32:31,246 It's redefining what l is. 451 00:32:31,246 --> 00:32:32,995 And eventually, you can solve it directly. 452 00:32:39,135 --> 00:32:39,635 Questions? 453 00:32:46,180 --> 00:32:46,840 OK. 454 00:32:46,840 --> 00:32:49,840 Then let me spend five to 10 minutes 455 00:32:49,840 --> 00:32:52,160 on spectroscopic notation. 456 00:33:06,700 --> 00:33:08,790 So the next five or 10 minutes, how 457 00:33:08,790 --> 00:33:14,570 we describe the configuration of an atom, 458 00:33:14,570 --> 00:33:17,080 well, I don't particularly like to teach it. 459 00:33:17,080 --> 00:33:20,970 Because it's more nomenclature about old-fashioned symbols. 460 00:33:20,970 --> 00:33:24,070 On the other hand, if you're working with atoms, 461 00:33:24,070 --> 00:33:26,960 you have to learn the language how to describe atoms. 462 00:33:26,960 --> 00:33:31,630 And I also know that an appreciable fraction 463 00:33:31,630 --> 00:33:34,840 of oral exams there will be one person in the community 464 00:33:34,840 --> 00:33:36,870 and say, what is your favorite atom? 465 00:33:36,870 --> 00:33:40,550 And what is the configuration of your atom? 466 00:33:40,550 --> 00:33:43,880 So it's something if you're an atomic physicist 467 00:33:43,880 --> 00:33:46,990 you're supposed to know. 468 00:33:46,990 --> 00:33:52,270 So the spectroscopic notation, the term designation 469 00:33:52,270 --> 00:33:58,170 focuses on the fact that if you have an isolated atom, 470 00:33:58,170 --> 00:34:02,850 we have angular momentum conservation. 471 00:34:02,850 --> 00:34:10,927 And so we have at least two quantum numbers. 472 00:34:10,927 --> 00:34:13,010 Which are sometimes also two good quantum numbers. 473 00:34:13,010 --> 00:34:14,940 We have some approximate quantum numbers 474 00:34:14,940 --> 00:34:19,540 where we have additional terms which break certain symmetries. 475 00:34:19,540 --> 00:34:24,179 But an isolated atom lives in isotropic space. 476 00:34:24,179 --> 00:34:30,070 The total angular momentum of this atom is conserved. 477 00:34:30,070 --> 00:34:31,830 It's absolutely conserved. 478 00:34:31,830 --> 00:34:34,150 It's absolutely good quantum number. 479 00:34:34,150 --> 00:34:37,739 And the good quantum numbers is the total angular momentum, j, 480 00:34:37,739 --> 00:34:39,510 and its protection energy. 481 00:34:43,989 --> 00:34:54,040 So in the language of atomic physics, we call j a level. 482 00:34:54,040 --> 00:34:55,800 It's different from states. 483 00:34:55,800 --> 00:35:05,050 So one level has now 2j plus 1 sub-levels or states. 484 00:35:08,760 --> 00:35:10,850 So usually when we talk about a level, 485 00:35:10,850 --> 00:35:14,950 we assume the level has degeneracies 486 00:35:14,950 --> 00:35:17,340 because there is the Mj quantum number. 487 00:35:21,060 --> 00:35:27,030 So j, you're talking about electronic structure. 488 00:35:27,030 --> 00:35:36,700 So j can have, when we have an isolated atom, 489 00:35:36,700 --> 00:35:40,275 can have contributions from several electrons. 490 00:35:51,040 --> 00:35:53,930 It can have contributions and these electrons 491 00:35:53,930 --> 00:36:04,990 can contribute through spin, s, and orbital angular 492 00:36:04,990 --> 00:36:06,128 momentum, l. 493 00:36:13,950 --> 00:36:17,990 In many situations, especially with alkali atoms, 494 00:36:17,990 --> 00:36:21,050 the inner core is completely field shell. 495 00:36:21,050 --> 00:36:23,780 There is no s, no l from the inner electrons 496 00:36:23,780 --> 00:36:24,857 which contribute. 497 00:36:24,857 --> 00:36:26,940 And all the contribution with the angular momentum 498 00:36:26,940 --> 00:36:28,190 comes from the outer electron. 499 00:36:31,220 --> 00:36:38,420 Especially for the lighter atoms. 500 00:36:38,420 --> 00:36:41,800 The non-relativistic atoms. 501 00:36:41,800 --> 00:36:49,390 The different electrons undergo ls copying. 502 00:36:49,390 --> 00:36:53,080 In other words, if you have multiple electrons, 503 00:36:53,080 --> 00:36:58,325 their orbital angular momentum couple up 504 00:36:58,325 --> 00:37:01,760 to the total orbital angular momentum, l. 505 00:37:01,760 --> 00:37:08,290 And all the spins couple up to the total spin, s. 506 00:37:08,290 --> 00:37:14,120 So therefore, before we introduce spin orbit copying, 507 00:37:14,120 --> 00:37:16,070 l is a good quantum number. 508 00:37:16,070 --> 00:37:17,800 s is a good quantum number. 509 00:37:17,800 --> 00:37:22,500 And then they couple to a good quantum number, j. 510 00:37:22,500 --> 00:37:26,500 Of course, once l and s couple to j, orbital and spin 511 00:37:26,500 --> 00:37:31,260 angular momentum precess around the total angular momentum. 512 00:37:31,260 --> 00:37:32,910 Anyway, I just want to say when I 513 00:37:32,910 --> 00:37:36,326 talk about j, what are possible ingredients? 514 00:37:40,030 --> 00:37:45,460 So let's assume we have an atom which has total angular 515 00:37:45,460 --> 00:37:47,520 momentum, j. 516 00:37:47,520 --> 00:37:52,337 And which is the sum of orbital angular momentum and spin 517 00:37:52,337 --> 00:37:53,045 angular momentum. 518 00:37:55,800 --> 00:38:10,020 And then in this case, we use a term designation. 519 00:38:10,020 --> 00:38:21,250 A level is designated by a term which 520 00:38:21,250 --> 00:38:28,030 is written as l, the value of orbital angular momentum. 521 00:38:28,030 --> 00:38:34,420 The spin multiplicity, 2s plus 1 is an upper left index. 522 00:38:34,420 --> 00:38:36,780 And a lower right index is j. 523 00:38:41,130 --> 00:38:50,190 And of course if l is 0, we use the letter s, p, d. 524 00:38:50,190 --> 00:38:54,000 This is sort of the historic letter designation 525 00:38:54,000 --> 00:38:56,680 for l equals 0, 1 and 2. 526 00:39:04,140 --> 00:39:07,040 So in other words, if you have an atom where the total angular 527 00:39:07,040 --> 00:39:10,310 momentum is composed of orbital angular momentum and spin, 528 00:39:10,310 --> 00:39:12,310 you can always write this symbol. 529 00:39:12,310 --> 00:39:15,700 And this symbol is the term designation 530 00:39:15,700 --> 00:39:20,190 which characterizes the state, the ground state or an excited 531 00:39:20,190 --> 00:39:21,250 state of your atom. 532 00:39:27,130 --> 00:39:49,270 If you have the hydrogenic atom, often you precede the term 533 00:39:49,270 --> 00:39:58,000 by the principal quantum number, n. 534 00:40:01,910 --> 00:40:05,920 So let me give you an example. 535 00:40:05,920 --> 00:40:15,060 If you have the sodium atom, the outer electron has n equals 3. 536 00:40:15,060 --> 00:40:18,670 It has 0 orbital angular momentum. 537 00:40:18,670 --> 00:40:20,420 It has spin 1/2. 538 00:40:20,420 --> 00:40:23,360 And 2s plus 1 is 2. 539 00:40:23,360 --> 00:40:30,710 And the total angular momentum is 1/2. 540 00:40:30,710 --> 00:40:34,860 If you go to the first excited state, you're still in n 541 00:40:34,860 --> 00:40:36,080 equals 3. 542 00:40:36,080 --> 00:40:38,970 But you have promoted the electron from an s state 543 00:40:38,970 --> 00:40:40,690 to p state. 544 00:40:40,690 --> 00:40:43,260 So, therefore, the orbital angular momentum 545 00:40:43,260 --> 00:40:47,330 is now 1 designated by p. 546 00:40:47,330 --> 00:40:50,190 The spin is still spin 1/2. 547 00:40:50,190 --> 00:40:54,780 But now orbital angular momentum of 1 and spin 1/2 548 00:40:54,780 --> 00:40:58,450 can form a total angular momentum 549 00:40:58,450 --> 00:41:02,915 which can either be 1/2 or 3/2. 550 00:41:07,240 --> 00:41:14,100 So if you're asked what is the state you prepare your atom in, 551 00:41:14,100 --> 00:41:18,520 you would give it a symbol 3 doublet p 1/2. 552 00:41:18,520 --> 00:41:20,220 And I've explained to you what it means. 553 00:41:23,920 --> 00:41:26,090 There is one addition. 554 00:41:26,090 --> 00:41:36,120 And sometimes you want to not just mention 555 00:41:36,120 --> 00:41:39,570 what is the principle quantum number of the outer electrons. 556 00:41:39,570 --> 00:41:43,675 Sometimes you want to specify the whole configuration. 557 00:41:54,760 --> 00:41:59,570 So this would mean you want to sort of build up the electron 558 00:41:59,570 --> 00:42:04,750 shell and say that I have two electrons in 1s, two 559 00:42:04,750 --> 00:42:11,280 electrons in 2s, one electron in 2p, and so on. 560 00:42:11,280 --> 00:42:18,910 So you use, I think this would now be beryllium atom? 561 00:42:23,400 --> 00:42:25,870 1s. 562 00:42:25,870 --> 00:42:29,920 So 1s is hydrogen, 1s2 is helium. 563 00:42:29,920 --> 00:42:32,876 Then we go to lithium. 564 00:42:32,876 --> 00:42:34,727 AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE] is boron. 565 00:42:34,727 --> 00:42:35,810 PROFESSOR: It's boron, no? 566 00:42:35,810 --> 00:42:37,660 OK, so this would be boron. 567 00:42:37,660 --> 00:42:42,010 So what we use is here we use the products. 568 00:42:42,010 --> 00:42:52,120 We use products of symbols n, l, m. 569 00:42:52,120 --> 00:42:56,600 So to come back to the example of sodium, 570 00:42:56,600 --> 00:43:00,220 so sodium is filled up. 571 00:43:00,220 --> 00:43:03,690 As in the first shells. 572 00:43:03,690 --> 00:43:05,840 So it's 2p6. 573 00:43:05,840 --> 00:43:10,230 And then we have one electron, the outer electron in 3s. 574 00:43:14,350 --> 00:43:17,470 However, let me point out that this way 575 00:43:17,470 --> 00:43:20,610 to specify the configuration strongly 576 00:43:20,610 --> 00:43:23,420 depends on a hydrogenic model. 577 00:43:23,420 --> 00:43:27,380 It assumes that the electrons are non-interacting. 578 00:43:27,380 --> 00:43:30,170 And is, therefore, an approximation. 579 00:43:30,170 --> 00:43:33,290 In contrast, the term designation 580 00:43:33,290 --> 00:43:38,342 with a total angular momentum is always exact. 581 00:43:38,342 --> 00:43:40,050 Well, at least the total angular momentum 582 00:43:40,050 --> 00:43:41,270 is an exact quantum number. 583 00:43:41,270 --> 00:43:43,500 Whereas the configuration is based 584 00:43:43,500 --> 00:43:47,630 on the independent electron approximation 585 00:43:47,630 --> 00:43:49,540 in hydrogenic orbits. 586 00:43:49,540 --> 00:43:52,680 And usually when you have a real atom 587 00:43:52,680 --> 00:43:55,770 and you calculate with high precision 588 00:43:55,770 --> 00:43:58,530 what the electronic wave function is, 589 00:43:58,530 --> 00:44:02,640 you find actually that total many-body wave function 590 00:44:02,640 --> 00:44:05,610 is a superposition of many such configurations. 591 00:44:05,610 --> 00:44:08,780 But as long as one configuration is dominant, 592 00:44:08,780 --> 00:44:11,000 this configuration designation makes sense. 593 00:44:16,650 --> 00:44:17,330 Any questions? 594 00:44:21,910 --> 00:44:26,060 OK, so we come back to the hydrogen atom 595 00:44:26,060 --> 00:44:32,370 when we discuss smaller features of the energy levels. 596 00:44:32,370 --> 00:44:35,530 Fine structure, hyperfine structure, and so on. 597 00:44:35,530 --> 00:44:39,890 But in our discussion of electronic energies, that's all 598 00:44:39,890 --> 00:44:44,010 I want to say about one electron atoms. 599 00:44:44,010 --> 00:44:49,710 So let's now proceed and discuss the helium atom. 600 00:44:54,600 --> 00:45:00,580 So we want to understand now what are the new effects when 601 00:45:00,580 --> 00:45:03,090 we have not only one electron, but two electrons. 602 00:45:10,150 --> 00:45:11,030 And don't worry. 603 00:45:11,030 --> 00:45:13,700 We are not proceeding to three, four, five electrons. 604 00:45:13,700 --> 00:45:16,340 I think to go from one to two, we actually 605 00:45:16,340 --> 00:45:18,730 capture the most important state. 606 00:45:18,730 --> 00:45:22,100 Namely, the interaction between the two electrons and what 607 00:45:22,100 --> 00:45:23,345 the results of that is. 608 00:45:26,930 --> 00:45:31,550 For the helium atom, there are some excellent treatments 609 00:45:31,550 --> 00:45:35,330 in standard textbooks of quantum mechanics. 610 00:45:35,330 --> 00:45:42,410 One is the famous quantum mechanic 611 00:45:42,410 --> 00:45:44,930 text by Cohen-Tannoudji et al. 612 00:45:47,690 --> 00:45:54,700 But also the text of Gasiorowicz. 613 00:46:03,410 --> 00:46:07,870 The reason why I have added the helium atom to the curriculum 614 00:46:07,870 --> 00:46:11,930 is because it is a simple system where 615 00:46:11,930 --> 00:46:16,180 we can discuss singlet and triplet states. 616 00:46:16,180 --> 00:46:19,220 And singlet and triplet configuration 617 00:46:19,220 --> 00:46:24,810 is important for population of inoptical lattices 618 00:46:24,810 --> 00:46:26,690 for quantum magnetism and such. 619 00:46:26,690 --> 00:46:29,510 Actually, you can say if you have two electrons 620 00:46:29,510 --> 00:46:33,080 and they align in a triplet state or a singlet state, 621 00:46:33,080 --> 00:46:34,910 one you can say is ferromagnetic. 622 00:46:34,910 --> 00:46:37,430 The other one is paired and antiferromagnetic. 623 00:46:37,430 --> 00:46:41,740 It's the simplest example where we can discuss magnetism. 624 00:46:41,740 --> 00:46:45,130 So that's my motivation why I want you to know something 625 00:46:45,130 --> 00:46:46,410 about the helium atom. 626 00:46:49,630 --> 00:46:58,810 So, therefore, let's now discuss energy levels of helium. 627 00:47:09,740 --> 00:47:20,220 And let's just start with the most basic model. 628 00:47:20,220 --> 00:47:24,400 The helium atom has two charges. 629 00:47:24,400 --> 00:47:28,740 So if you regard it as a hydrogen problem 630 00:47:28,740 --> 00:47:36,700 and we put two electrons into the 1s state, 631 00:47:36,700 --> 00:47:43,220 we would expect that based on the hydrogenic model 632 00:47:43,220 --> 00:47:49,870 that the binding energy of that is, per electron, 633 00:47:49,870 --> 00:47:53,450 is the Rydberg energy as in hydrogen. 634 00:47:53,450 --> 00:47:58,520 But now we have to scale it with z squared, the nuclear charge. 635 00:47:58,520 --> 00:48:00,890 And this gives us a factor of 4. 636 00:48:00,890 --> 00:48:05,530 So we would expect that per electron, the binding energy 637 00:48:05,530 --> 00:48:10,095 in the more simple hydrogenic model is 54 electron volt. 638 00:48:12,750 --> 00:48:22,770 So that would mean that the binding energy of the ground 639 00:48:22,770 --> 00:48:29,220 state is minus 108 electron volt. 640 00:48:37,050 --> 00:48:45,420 However, the experimental result is 641 00:48:45,420 --> 00:48:50,610 that it's only 79 electron volt. 642 00:48:50,610 --> 00:49:01,140 So we find that there is a big discrepancy of 29 electron 643 00:49:01,140 --> 00:49:02,230 volt. 644 00:49:02,230 --> 00:49:05,390 Which is really huge. 645 00:49:05,390 --> 00:49:10,480 So what is responsible for this big discrepancy? 646 00:49:10,480 --> 00:49:12,810 Well, what we have neglected, of course, 647 00:49:12,810 --> 00:49:15,250 is the interaction between the two electrons. 648 00:49:34,730 --> 00:49:39,810 So we can fix that in the simplest way 649 00:49:39,810 --> 00:49:43,380 by keeping the wave function from the hydrogenic model. 650 00:49:43,380 --> 00:49:48,920 But now calculating the electronic energies, 651 00:49:48,920 --> 00:49:54,200 the electron-electron energy, by using 652 00:49:54,200 --> 00:49:59,066 the electron-electron interaction as a perturbation 653 00:49:59,066 --> 00:49:59,565 operator. 654 00:50:03,510 --> 00:50:08,530 So we still use as the wave function for the ground 655 00:50:08,530 --> 00:50:15,890 state, electron 1 in the 1s state. 656 00:50:15,890 --> 00:50:20,460 So 1-0-0 is a designation for n, l, m for the hydrogenic quantum 657 00:50:20,460 --> 00:50:21,550 numbers. 658 00:50:21,550 --> 00:50:24,640 And we assume that the ground state is simply 659 00:50:24,640 --> 00:50:29,220 the product of two electrons in the 1s state. 660 00:50:29,220 --> 00:50:34,280 So if I calculate for this perturbation operator 661 00:50:34,280 --> 00:50:38,970 the expectation value with this ground state, 662 00:50:38,970 --> 00:50:46,470 we find that there is an energy correction which 663 00:50:46,470 --> 00:50:52,010 is 34 electron volt. 664 00:50:52,010 --> 00:51:00,680 So this removes most of the discrepancy. 665 00:51:10,610 --> 00:51:16,390 You can improve on it by a variation wave function 666 00:51:16,390 --> 00:51:20,270 if you use hydrogenic eigenfunctions as your tile 667 00:51:20,270 --> 00:51:21,710 wave function. 668 00:51:21,710 --> 00:51:25,520 But you are now calculating those hydrogenic wave functions 669 00:51:25,520 --> 00:51:31,640 not for nuclear charge 2, but in nuclear charge c star, which 670 00:51:31,640 --> 00:51:33,900 you keep as a variation of parameter. 671 00:51:33,900 --> 00:51:39,890 You find that you find even better wave functions. 672 00:51:39,890 --> 00:51:42,830 And you can remove 2/3 of these remaining 673 00:51:42,830 --> 00:51:45,570 discrepancy of five electron volts. 674 00:51:45,570 --> 00:51:49,879 This variational wave function is left to you 675 00:51:49,879 --> 00:51:50,920 as a homework assignment. 676 00:52:05,540 --> 00:52:09,155 So where z is z equals 2 is replaced 677 00:52:09,155 --> 00:52:11,530 by a variation of parameter. 678 00:52:11,530 --> 00:52:13,540 Anyway, that's all I want to tell you 679 00:52:13,540 --> 00:52:17,550 about the ground state of helium. 680 00:52:17,550 --> 00:52:20,280 It's pretty much finding a wave function 681 00:52:20,280 --> 00:52:23,460 which correctly captures the Coulomb energies. 682 00:52:23,460 --> 00:52:28,900 The interaction between the two electrons. 683 00:52:28,900 --> 00:52:31,370 But what is much more interesting, 684 00:52:31,370 --> 00:52:33,310 and this is what I want to focus on 685 00:52:33,310 --> 00:52:35,370 for the rest of this lecture, is what 686 00:52:35,370 --> 00:52:39,200 happens in the excited state. 687 00:52:39,200 --> 00:52:40,800 Before I do that, let me just tell you 688 00:52:40,800 --> 00:52:42,540 what we just discussed. 689 00:52:42,540 --> 00:52:45,300 So we have to this hydrogenic estimate 690 00:52:45,300 --> 00:52:51,840 and eventually the Coulomb energy raises the energy level 691 00:52:51,840 --> 00:52:55,520 to what we have just discussed. 692 00:52:55,520 --> 00:52:58,120 But, you know, as the ground state has no degeneracy. 693 00:52:58,120 --> 00:53:01,970 And so we all talk about quantitative shifts. 694 00:53:01,970 --> 00:53:05,240 However, when we go to the excited state, 695 00:53:05,240 --> 00:53:07,930 we will find the degeneracies. 696 00:53:07,930 --> 00:53:09,800 And degeneracies are much more interesting 697 00:53:09,800 --> 00:53:12,960 because something which was degenerate can split. 698 00:53:12,960 --> 00:53:14,410 You have two different terms. 699 00:53:14,410 --> 00:53:16,910 So suddenly there is richer physics. 700 00:53:16,910 --> 00:53:21,930 So, therefore, we want to discuss now the excited state. 701 00:53:21,930 --> 00:53:28,830 So starting again with the hydrogenic model. 702 00:53:28,830 --> 00:53:32,170 In hydrogen, the 2s and 2p state are 703 00:53:32,170 --> 00:53:37,420 degenerate so we have two configurations contributing 704 00:53:37,420 --> 00:53:38,540 to the same energy. 705 00:53:38,540 --> 00:53:40,880 1s 2s and 1s 2p. 706 00:53:46,200 --> 00:53:49,620 The binding energy in the hydrogenic model 707 00:53:49,620 --> 00:53:51,900 is a quarter of a Rydberg. 708 00:53:51,900 --> 00:53:55,450 Rydberg over n square and ns2. 709 00:53:55,450 --> 00:53:57,900 We have to scale it by z square. 710 00:53:57,900 --> 00:54:04,480 And we find 13.6 electron volt. 711 00:54:04,480 --> 00:54:06,880 But now what happens is that we have 712 00:54:06,880 --> 00:54:14,040 to introduce the Coulomb energy between the electrons. 713 00:54:14,040 --> 00:54:22,250 And if you do that, it shifts up the levels in different ways. 714 00:54:22,250 --> 00:54:24,860 So this is 1s, 2s. 715 00:54:24,860 --> 00:54:26,050 This is 1s, 2p. 716 00:54:31,000 --> 00:54:32,110 So why is this different? 717 00:54:54,870 --> 00:54:56,780 Well, you can say the following. 718 00:55:08,970 --> 00:55:10,370 You have two electrons. 719 00:55:10,370 --> 00:55:13,400 And you have the helium nucleus. 720 00:55:13,400 --> 00:55:18,630 And you first put in the 1s electron. 721 00:55:18,630 --> 00:55:22,410 And now the second electron when it is in a p state, 722 00:55:22,410 --> 00:55:25,490 in a 2p state, it's further out. 723 00:55:25,490 --> 00:55:28,110 And it pretty much experiences out 724 00:55:28,110 --> 00:55:31,240 there the charge of the helium nucleus 725 00:55:31,240 --> 00:55:33,840 shielded by the 1s electron. 726 00:55:33,840 --> 00:55:37,330 And, therefore, it sees in effect a smaller 727 00:55:37,330 --> 00:55:39,450 nuclear charge. 728 00:55:39,450 --> 00:55:43,950 Whereas, the two s electron penetrates deeper. 729 00:55:43,950 --> 00:55:46,450 Gets closer to the nucleus and will still 730 00:55:46,450 --> 00:55:49,990 realize that the nucleus has a charge of 2. 731 00:55:49,990 --> 00:55:51,860 And not a shielded charge. 732 00:55:51,860 --> 00:55:56,190 So, therefore, you would expect that the shielding effect 733 00:55:56,190 --> 00:55:59,580 due to the innermost electron is more important, 734 00:55:59,580 --> 00:56:02,530 has a bigger effect for the 2p electron 735 00:56:02,530 --> 00:56:03,665 then for the 2s electron. 736 00:56:07,610 --> 00:56:10,000 So let me just write that down. 737 00:56:10,000 --> 00:56:17,830 So the 2p electron it sees a shielded nucleus. 738 00:56:22,700 --> 00:56:26,260 In other words, what it experiences more 739 00:56:26,260 --> 00:56:31,500 as an inner core, the Coulomb potential of helium plus. 740 00:56:31,500 --> 00:56:33,945 And not so much of helium 2 plus. 741 00:56:41,280 --> 00:56:45,060 This is due to the 1s electron. 742 00:56:45,060 --> 00:56:53,000 And, therefore, the 2p electron has a smaller binding energy. 743 00:56:55,610 --> 00:57:07,900 It's actually comparable to the binding energy 744 00:57:07,900 --> 00:57:09,855 of the 2p state in hydrogen. 745 00:57:12,840 --> 00:57:15,348 Which is on the order of 4 electron volt. 746 00:57:19,220 --> 00:57:32,690 And this effect is smaller for the 2s state. 747 00:57:36,050 --> 00:57:37,900 So let's go back to the energy diagram. 748 00:57:42,980 --> 00:57:51,020 So we have now the situation which I just described. 749 00:57:51,020 --> 00:57:54,110 We have two degenerate configurations 750 00:57:54,110 --> 00:57:56,020 for in the hydrogen model. 751 00:57:56,020 --> 00:58:01,320 And when we add in Coulomb energy between the electrons, 752 00:58:01,320 --> 00:58:04,400 there is quite a big splitting of several electron volts. 753 00:58:08,780 --> 00:58:13,832 But now, each label undergoes further splitting. 754 00:58:13,832 --> 00:58:15,290 And this is what I want to discuss. 755 00:58:17,800 --> 00:58:20,010 So we are still sorting out just the preliminaries. 756 00:58:20,010 --> 00:58:22,120 What I really want to discuss with you 757 00:58:22,120 --> 00:58:23,920 is the singlet and triplet thing. 758 00:58:23,920 --> 00:58:27,090 But now we are there where we can do it. 759 00:58:27,090 --> 00:58:32,420 So if you have a configuration with 1s, 2s, 760 00:58:32,420 --> 00:58:37,330 there are two possibilities for the total angular momentum. 761 00:58:37,330 --> 00:58:39,500 Two electrons in an s state, there 762 00:58:39,500 --> 00:58:41,090 is no orbital angular momentum. 763 00:58:41,090 --> 00:58:43,200 But there are two spins, 1/2. 764 00:58:43,200 --> 00:58:47,130 And they can add up to 1 or can add up to 0. 765 00:58:47,130 --> 00:58:53,120 So, therefore, we will have two different terms. 766 00:58:53,120 --> 00:58:57,760 One is singlet s0. 767 00:58:57,760 --> 00:59:01,750 And one is triplet s1. 768 00:59:01,750 --> 00:59:05,840 And this splitting is 0.8 electron volt. 769 00:59:05,840 --> 00:59:08,800 And this is what we want to discuss in the following. 770 00:59:08,800 --> 00:59:12,080 For completeness, but the physics is similar, 771 00:59:12,080 --> 00:59:18,270 let me mention that the 1s, 2p state also gives 772 00:59:18,270 --> 00:59:19,780 rise to two terms. 773 00:59:19,780 --> 00:59:24,406 We have now the total orbital angular momentum, p. 774 00:59:24,406 --> 00:59:26,610 Orbital angular momentum of 1. 775 00:59:26,610 --> 00:59:30,350 The spin angular momentum is 0 or 1. 776 00:59:30,350 --> 00:59:33,080 So we have singlet and triplet. 777 00:59:33,080 --> 00:59:43,400 And the total angular momentum is 1 in this case. 778 00:59:43,400 --> 00:59:49,410 Or in this case, 2, 1, or 0. 779 00:59:49,410 --> 00:59:53,240 And the splitting in this situation 780 00:59:53,240 --> 00:59:57,240 is also on the order of a fraction of an electron volt. 781 01:00:00,400 --> 01:00:02,840 So what we want to understand now 782 01:00:02,840 --> 01:00:10,090 is why do we observe a splitting between those two levels 783 01:00:10,090 --> 01:00:12,990 which seems to depend on the spin? 784 01:00:12,990 --> 01:00:16,290 How can the spin cause a splitting? 785 01:00:16,290 --> 01:00:23,230 Because the spin so far has not appeared in our Hamiltonian. 786 01:00:23,230 --> 01:00:24,920 We rarely have a Hamiltonian which 787 01:00:24,920 --> 01:00:26,970 has only the Coulomb energy. 788 01:00:26,970 --> 01:00:30,050 And the spin is not part of it. 789 01:00:30,050 --> 01:00:31,660 So we don't have a magnetic field 790 01:00:31,660 --> 01:00:34,640 to which the magnetic momentum of the spin would couple. 791 01:00:34,640 --> 01:00:38,680 And also we have not yet introduced spin orbit coupling. 792 01:00:38,680 --> 01:00:41,620 But if this is on your mind, take it off your mind. 793 01:00:41,620 --> 01:00:45,710 Spin orbit coupling is a much, much smaller effect. 794 01:00:45,710 --> 01:00:48,350 Energies on the order of 1 electron volt, 795 01:00:48,350 --> 01:00:51,510 you just cannot get from spin orbit coupling. 796 01:00:51,510 --> 01:00:54,820 Spin orbit coupling is smaller than electronic energies, 797 01:00:54,820 --> 01:00:58,050 as I will explain to you on Friday, 798 01:00:58,050 --> 01:01:00,470 is smaller by the fine structure constant. 799 01:01:00,470 --> 01:01:05,010 So the typical scale for spin orbit coupling 800 01:01:05,010 --> 01:01:10,600 is maybe 10 or 100 million electron volt. 801 01:01:10,600 --> 01:01:12,880 It's much smaller. 802 01:01:12,880 --> 01:01:15,610 So, therefore, we want to understand now 803 01:01:15,610 --> 01:01:18,890 why do we have a spin dependent energy. 804 01:01:18,890 --> 01:01:23,140 Also we haven't coupled at this point the spin to any field. 805 01:01:29,910 --> 01:01:35,680 OK, so we are focusing now on the splitting. 806 01:01:44,030 --> 01:01:50,980 So we have the 1s, 2s configuration. 807 01:01:50,980 --> 01:01:53,650 We get two terms, as I just discussed. 808 01:01:57,540 --> 01:02:02,180 One is singlet and one is triplet. 809 01:02:04,720 --> 01:02:11,550 And still using the hydrogenic model 810 01:02:11,550 --> 01:02:14,240 of non-interacting electrons, we want 811 01:02:14,240 --> 01:02:17,290 to write down the wave function. 812 01:02:17,290 --> 01:02:22,010 So the wave function of the twin electrons 813 01:02:22,010 --> 01:02:28,870 is we have one electron in the 1s state. 814 01:02:28,870 --> 01:02:36,140 We have one electron in the 2s state. 815 01:02:36,140 --> 01:02:40,720 But now since we have fermionic atoms, 816 01:02:40,720 --> 01:02:46,030 we have to correctly symmetrize it. 817 01:02:46,030 --> 01:02:54,390 So whether we want the symmetric or antisymmetric combination, 818 01:02:54,390 --> 01:02:58,300 we exchange the two electrons. 819 01:02:58,300 --> 01:03:03,375 So now we have r2 and r2 in reverse order. 820 01:03:07,410 --> 01:03:17,060 Of course, the total wave function for two fermions 821 01:03:17,060 --> 01:03:19,880 has to be antisymmetric. 822 01:03:19,880 --> 01:03:23,740 But the total wave function is the product of the spatial wave 823 01:03:23,740 --> 01:03:28,770 function which I just wrote down times the spin wave function. 824 01:03:28,770 --> 01:03:36,330 The spin wave function can be antisymmetric and symmetric. 825 01:03:36,330 --> 01:03:41,460 And the antisymmetric spin wave function 826 01:03:41,460 --> 01:03:44,270 has to combine with the symmetric spatial wave 827 01:03:44,270 --> 01:03:47,010 function, and vice versa, to make sure 828 01:03:47,010 --> 01:03:50,080 that the total wave function is antisymmetric. 829 01:03:50,080 --> 01:03:54,120 And the correct description for fermions. 830 01:03:54,120 --> 01:03:56,940 The designation here, symmetric and antisymmetric 831 01:03:56,940 --> 01:04:02,100 for the total wave function reflects the spatial part. 832 01:04:02,100 --> 01:04:04,690 The total wave function, of course, including the spin wave 833 01:04:04,690 --> 01:04:06,065 function is always antisymmetric. 834 01:04:12,900 --> 01:04:20,250 OK, so we have two wave functions. 835 01:04:20,250 --> 01:04:27,210 One has a symmetric spatial wave function. 836 01:04:31,410 --> 01:04:34,960 The other one, an antisymmetric. 837 01:04:34,960 --> 01:04:38,280 The symmetric spatial wave function 838 01:04:38,280 --> 01:04:44,120 has an antisymmetric spin wave function. 839 01:04:48,070 --> 01:04:53,650 And that means we have s equals 0. 840 01:04:53,650 --> 01:04:57,040 That's up, down, minus down, up is antisymmetric. 841 01:04:57,040 --> 01:04:59,730 Where as the antisymmetric spatial 842 01:04:59,730 --> 01:05:04,550 wave function goes together with the symmetric spin wave 843 01:05:04,550 --> 01:05:08,040 function s equals 1. 844 01:05:08,040 --> 01:05:10,900 So this is the situation which gives rise 845 01:05:10,900 --> 01:05:19,720 to that triplet s1 term. 846 01:05:19,720 --> 01:05:22,810 And this here is the singlet s0 term. 847 01:05:27,390 --> 01:05:28,330 OK. 848 01:05:28,330 --> 01:05:31,996 As long as we have non-interacting electron, 849 01:05:31,996 --> 01:05:36,300 the two wave functions are degenerate. 850 01:05:36,300 --> 01:05:44,200 But now we want to bring in the Coulomb energy between the two 851 01:05:44,200 --> 01:05:47,460 electrons which we had already discussed before. 852 01:06:17,590 --> 01:06:27,720 And if you calculate the energy using this as a perturbation 853 01:06:27,720 --> 01:06:32,880 operator, well, remember the wave function had two parts. 854 01:06:32,880 --> 01:06:37,670 It was 100, r1, 200, r2. 855 01:06:37,670 --> 01:06:41,570 And the part where our 1 and our 2 were flipped. 856 01:06:41,570 --> 01:06:46,730 And now if we have the wave function, the perturbation 857 01:06:46,730 --> 01:06:51,500 operator, we get a total of 4 terms. 858 01:06:51,500 --> 01:06:52,310 2 times 2. 859 01:06:52,310 --> 01:06:55,220 We have to sort of x it out. 860 01:06:55,220 --> 01:07:01,770 And we will then have the sort of diagonal parts. 861 01:07:01,770 --> 01:07:04,450 And we have the parts which are off diagonal. 862 01:07:04,450 --> 01:07:13,720 And for the off diagonal parts, it 863 01:07:13,720 --> 01:07:16,120 matters whether we had the plus or minus sign. 864 01:07:16,120 --> 01:07:19,350 You know, if you have plus, plus and minus, minus, 865 01:07:19,350 --> 01:07:20,880 you give a positive contribution. 866 01:07:20,880 --> 01:07:24,590 But if you connect the wave function 867 01:07:24,590 --> 01:07:32,700 before and after the operator, plus with minus, 868 01:07:32,700 --> 01:07:33,880 we get minus signs. 869 01:07:33,880 --> 01:07:36,920 So in other words, we have one contribution 870 01:07:36,920 --> 01:07:38,600 where it doesn't matter whether we 871 01:07:38,600 --> 01:07:40,690 have the symmetric or antisymmetric spatial wave 872 01:07:40,690 --> 01:07:41,460 function. 873 01:07:41,460 --> 01:07:44,094 But then we have another term where 874 01:07:44,094 --> 01:07:46,510 it matters whether we have the symmetric and antisymmetric 875 01:07:46,510 --> 01:07:47,120 wave function. 876 01:07:47,120 --> 01:07:49,940 That's where the plus or minus sign from the symmetrized wave 877 01:07:49,940 --> 01:07:51,710 function appears. 878 01:07:51,710 --> 01:07:55,350 So we have two contributions now to the energy correction. 879 01:07:55,350 --> 01:07:59,010 One is independent of the spin wave function 880 01:07:59,010 --> 01:08:01,930 whether we have the symmetric or antisymmetric configuration. 881 01:08:01,930 --> 01:08:03,430 The other one is not. 882 01:08:03,430 --> 01:08:06,190 The first term is called the Coulomb energy. 883 01:08:06,190 --> 01:08:09,090 The second term is called the exchange energy. 884 01:08:20,439 --> 01:08:24,630 So what we find is-- we have to trace back the sign, 885 01:08:24,630 --> 01:08:34,100 but you find that the triplet state symmetric in spin. 886 01:08:34,100 --> 01:08:38,720 And antisymmetric in the spatial wave function. 887 01:08:38,720 --> 01:08:47,710 Has the lower energy, is more strongly bound 888 01:08:47,710 --> 01:09:06,244 because the antisymmetric spatial wave function reduces 889 01:09:06,244 --> 01:09:08,410 the repulsive interaction between the two electrons. 890 01:09:15,660 --> 01:09:17,870 So in other words, we do not have 891 01:09:17,870 --> 01:09:21,300 any spin term in the Hamiltonian. 892 01:09:21,300 --> 01:09:24,700 It's just that whether the spin wave function is 893 01:09:24,700 --> 01:09:28,990 symmetric or antisymmetric, it requires the spatial wave 894 01:09:28,990 --> 01:09:31,760 function to be the opposite. 895 01:09:31,760 --> 01:09:36,040 And now when we calculate the Coulomb energy 896 01:09:36,040 --> 01:09:39,420 for the spatial or antisymmetric spatial wave function, 897 01:09:39,420 --> 01:09:41,370 we find a big difference. 898 01:09:41,370 --> 01:09:44,950 And the big difference is the exchange energy. 899 01:09:44,950 --> 01:09:51,529 So it is a spin dependent term for the total energy. 900 01:09:51,529 --> 01:09:56,810 But what is behind this energy is simply the Coulomb energy. 901 01:09:56,810 --> 01:10:01,270 So the spin through the symmetry of the wave function 902 01:10:01,270 --> 01:10:05,626 leads to a difference in the Coulomb energy. 903 01:10:05,626 --> 01:10:07,000 And actually what I'm telling you 904 01:10:07,000 --> 01:10:12,140 is the explanation why we have magnetism at room temperature. 905 01:10:12,140 --> 01:10:14,530 It was Heisenberg's idea when he realized 906 01:10:14,530 --> 01:10:18,050 for the first time what can cause ferromagnetism. 907 01:10:18,050 --> 01:10:23,160 It was pretty much the model of the helium atom expanded 908 01:10:23,160 --> 01:10:26,620 to many, many electrons in a lattice. 909 01:10:26,620 --> 01:10:30,260 So the result is that the Curie temperature of thousands 910 01:10:30,260 --> 01:10:33,790 of degrees, we have magnetism below 1,000 degrees. 911 01:10:33,790 --> 01:10:37,780 This energy scale is an electronic energy, 912 01:10:37,780 --> 01:10:41,050 is in Coulomb energy scale and not an energy scale 913 01:10:41,050 --> 01:10:43,190 where spin interactions comes into play. 914 01:10:43,190 --> 01:10:45,530 If it were not for the exchange energy, 915 01:10:45,530 --> 01:10:50,190 we would not have magnetic materials above 1 calorie. 916 01:10:50,190 --> 01:10:52,310 So this is what you see here in the helium atom. 917 01:10:52,310 --> 01:10:57,650 How speed leads to an energy splitting which 918 01:10:57,650 --> 01:11:01,160 is an electronic Coulombic energy splitting. 919 01:11:05,530 --> 01:11:10,590 OK, let's make it maybe even more obvious. 920 01:11:10,590 --> 01:11:15,360 The above equation can be rewritten. 921 01:11:24,690 --> 01:11:28,780 So this energy splitting can be written 922 01:11:28,780 --> 01:11:39,390 as a constant, alpha, plus a constant beta, 923 01:11:39,390 --> 01:11:41,580 times the product of s1 and s2. 924 01:11:44,390 --> 01:11:56,030 Well, what happens is-- let me just give you as a sidebar, 925 01:11:56,030 --> 01:12:01,080 the product of s1 and s2 can be written 926 01:12:01,080 --> 01:12:08,190 as minus s1 square, minus s2 square, plus s square. 927 01:12:13,110 --> 01:12:18,890 s1 square is one half times 3/2, it's 3/4. s2 squared is 3/4. 928 01:12:18,890 --> 01:12:25,282 And s square is either 0 or 2 depending 929 01:12:25,282 --> 01:12:27,240 whether you're in the singlet or triplet state. 930 01:12:27,240 --> 01:12:30,710 In other words, I just want to with the sidebar, 931 01:12:30,710 --> 01:12:34,270 which you have seen many, many times, just remind you 932 01:12:34,270 --> 01:12:38,320 that the product of s1 and s2 has only two values. 933 01:12:41,230 --> 01:12:45,990 One for the singlet state, one for the triplet state. 934 01:12:45,990 --> 01:12:48,790 So, therefore, if I have a singlet level 935 01:12:48,790 --> 01:12:51,110 and a triplet level, I can always 936 01:12:51,110 --> 01:12:54,410 parametrize it like this. 937 01:12:54,410 --> 01:13:01,500 And I can make it more obvious by showing 938 01:13:01,500 --> 01:13:07,690 what this formula on the right hand side has two values. 939 01:13:07,690 --> 01:13:09,480 One for s equals 0. 940 01:13:09,480 --> 01:13:11,820 And one for s equals 1. 941 01:13:11,820 --> 01:13:17,520 And this can be rewritten as alpha. 942 01:13:17,520 --> 01:13:19,930 You find a more explicit calculation in the [? video, ?] 943 01:13:19,930 --> 01:13:22,890 but it's also just one more line of algebra. 944 01:13:22,890 --> 01:13:29,320 You can write it in the following way. 945 01:13:29,320 --> 01:13:32,180 So, therefore, the alpha and beta parameter 946 01:13:32,180 --> 01:13:35,920 are just a way of, you know, you have two energy levels. 947 01:13:35,920 --> 01:13:38,620 And with two constants, you can always 948 01:13:38,620 --> 01:13:40,030 describe two energy levels. 949 01:13:40,030 --> 01:13:42,500 Here, I've done it with alpha and beta. 950 01:13:42,500 --> 01:13:46,960 But before, I did it with the Coulomb energy. 951 01:13:50,690 --> 01:13:58,896 And the exchange energy which we obtained in this equation 952 01:13:58,896 --> 01:14:01,580 when we perturbatively calculated the integral. 953 01:14:12,040 --> 01:14:16,740 So by writing it as s1 dot s2, I even 954 01:14:16,740 --> 01:14:19,990 suggest that the two spins interact 955 01:14:19,990 --> 01:14:22,410 like a dipole-dipole interaction. 956 01:14:22,410 --> 01:14:23,947 But they don't. 957 01:14:23,947 --> 01:14:25,530 It comes from the Coulomb interaction, 958 01:14:25,530 --> 01:14:29,410 but it is equivalent to a gigantic dipole-dipole 959 01:14:29,410 --> 01:14:31,510 interaction. 960 01:14:31,510 --> 01:14:33,420 So, therefore, the conclusion of this 961 01:14:33,420 --> 01:14:37,310 is that what I have derived for you for the helium atom, 962 01:14:37,310 --> 01:14:50,936 it looks like a ferromagnetic spin-spin interaction. 963 01:14:54,290 --> 01:14:58,015 And, well, it looks like it, it is actually 964 01:14:58,015 --> 01:15:02,770 an effective ferromagnetic spin-spin interaction. 965 01:15:02,770 --> 01:15:07,635 However, the coupling is purely electrostatic 966 01:15:07,635 --> 01:15:14,581 here and not magnetic. 967 01:15:28,494 --> 01:15:28,994 Questions? 968 01:15:35,000 --> 01:15:37,108 OK, yes? 969 01:15:37,108 --> 01:15:40,100 AUDIENCE: So since we're still using the hydrogenic wave 970 01:15:40,100 --> 01:15:41,980 function as a basis, how closely does this 971 01:15:41,980 --> 01:15:48,290 get to the actual measured values? 972 01:15:48,290 --> 01:15:51,080 PROFESSOR: The question is, how close do we 973 01:15:51,080 --> 01:15:53,930 get with hydrogenic wave functions 974 01:15:53,930 --> 01:15:55,215 to the actual measured energy? 975 01:15:58,460 --> 01:15:59,912 I don't know. 976 01:15:59,912 --> 01:16:03,130 I don't know the exact numbers for the excited state. 977 01:16:03,130 --> 01:16:05,650 I assume that it's similar to the ground state. 978 01:16:05,650 --> 01:16:07,260 You saw that for the ground state, 979 01:16:07,260 --> 01:16:08,790 we had a big discrepancy. 980 01:16:08,790 --> 01:16:12,860 Most of that was closed by using hydrogenic wave functions. 981 01:16:12,860 --> 01:16:15,920 And just calculating the perturbative terms. 982 01:16:15,920 --> 01:16:19,040 So you pretty much get qualitatively or 983 01:16:19,040 --> 01:16:22,280 semi-quantitatively, you get the picture out of it. 984 01:16:22,280 --> 01:16:23,980 And unless you're really interested 985 01:16:23,980 --> 01:16:26,340 in the absolute values, you can stop there. 986 01:16:26,340 --> 01:16:30,250 But one way to go further and reduce the discrepancy by 75% 987 01:16:30,250 --> 01:16:32,840 is to use this variational wave function where 988 01:16:32,840 --> 01:16:35,020 you use hydrogenic wave function, 989 01:16:35,020 --> 01:16:38,040 but you use z, the nuclear charge, 990 01:16:38,040 --> 01:16:40,210 as a variation of parameter. 991 01:16:40,210 --> 01:16:42,770 And I mean, this is, I mean, it's amazing. 992 01:16:42,770 --> 01:16:44,270 I mean, you have a two electron atom 993 01:16:44,270 --> 01:16:46,230 and you use a hydrogenic wave function 994 01:16:46,230 --> 01:16:47,230 with one free parameter. 995 01:16:47,230 --> 01:16:50,380 And you get binding energies which 996 01:16:50,380 --> 01:16:53,920 are on the order of 70 electron volt accurate to 997 01:16:53,920 --> 01:16:57,250 within better than 3%, 4%, 5%. 998 01:16:57,250 --> 01:16:59,560 But by adding other terms or using a little bit 999 01:16:59,560 --> 01:17:01,670 more fancy wave functions, I'm sure you 1000 01:17:01,670 --> 01:17:03,494 can get further and further. 1001 01:17:06,840 --> 01:17:16,320 OK, so the last thing I wanted to discuss 1002 01:17:16,320 --> 01:17:24,010 is the new feature of two electrons 1003 01:17:24,010 --> 01:17:30,380 is that we have singlet and triplet levels. 1004 01:17:30,380 --> 01:17:42,550 So we have a letter of states which are singlet states. 1005 01:17:47,210 --> 01:17:49,875 And then, and this is what we just discussed, 1006 01:17:49,875 --> 01:17:52,360 let me just make dashed lines. 1007 01:17:52,360 --> 01:17:57,520 Because of this ferromagnetic spin-spin interaction, 1008 01:17:57,520 --> 01:18:02,400 we have triplets states which have lower energy. 1009 01:18:02,400 --> 01:18:05,610 So these are n equals 2 triplet states. 1010 01:18:12,250 --> 01:18:16,100 n equals 2 triplet states. 1011 01:18:16,100 --> 01:18:17,400 j equals 1. 1012 01:18:17,400 --> 01:18:21,500 j equals 0, 1, 2. 1013 01:18:21,500 --> 01:18:27,710 So of course, there are transitions 1014 01:18:27,710 --> 01:18:29,800 between those levels. 1015 01:18:29,800 --> 01:18:34,276 And form a p state, you can have transitions down to an s state. 1016 01:18:38,130 --> 01:18:44,230 The question I have is what about possible transitions 1017 01:18:44,230 --> 01:18:47,380 between triplet and singlet? 1018 01:18:51,160 --> 01:18:58,560 So what I want to ask you know with a clicker question is 1019 01:18:58,560 --> 01:19:00,910 what kind? 1020 01:19:00,910 --> 01:19:05,720 So those transitions here are transitions 1021 01:19:05,720 --> 01:19:09,530 between singlet and triplet. 1022 01:19:09,530 --> 01:19:12,980 And the technical term for transitions between singlet 1023 01:19:12,980 --> 01:19:16,320 and triplet are intercombination lines. 1024 01:19:19,550 --> 01:19:35,880 So the question I have for you is what fields or couplings 1025 01:19:35,880 --> 01:19:40,308 drive singlet triplet transitions? 1026 01:19:48,220 --> 01:19:54,280 So I want you to think about the model we have discussed so far. 1027 01:19:54,280 --> 01:19:57,060 All we have is Coulomb energy. 1028 01:19:57,060 --> 01:20:00,290 Coulomb energy between the nucleus and the electrons. 1029 01:20:00,290 --> 01:20:02,530 And between the electrons. 1030 01:20:02,530 --> 01:20:03,240 That's it. 1031 01:20:03,240 --> 01:20:06,730 We do not put any other terms into the Hamiltonian. 1032 01:20:06,730 --> 01:20:09,820 And now we have obtained those wave functions. 1033 01:20:09,820 --> 01:20:12,020 We have obtained those energies splittings. 1034 01:20:12,020 --> 01:20:16,300 And now we want to ask are there transitions possible? 1035 01:20:16,300 --> 01:20:21,040 So one possibility is that we can drive the transition 1036 01:20:21,040 --> 01:20:22,070 with optical fields. 1037 01:20:26,420 --> 01:20:29,100 Let's say our dipole operator. 1038 01:20:29,100 --> 01:20:32,330 Which many of you have encountered in life. 1039 01:20:32,330 --> 01:20:39,934 We have already discussed rotating magnetic fields 1040 01:20:39,934 --> 01:20:43,940 in the first part of the course. 1041 01:20:43,940 --> 01:20:46,460 Is it possible to use both magnetic fields 1042 01:20:46,460 --> 01:20:48,390 and optical fields? 1043 01:20:48,390 --> 01:20:53,160 Or the last answer is none of the above. 1044 01:20:53,160 --> 01:20:56,070 It's not possible with any of those fields 1045 01:20:56,070 --> 01:21:00,674 to create any kind of transition between singlet and triplet. 1046 01:21:28,562 --> 01:21:36,330 OK, all right. 1047 01:21:39,130 --> 01:21:42,660 We have to spend the first 10 minutes on the class on Friday 1048 01:21:42,660 --> 01:21:44,400 to discuss that. 1049 01:21:44,400 --> 01:21:47,560 But the answer is none. 1050 01:21:47,560 --> 01:21:52,375 There is no way how you can get a transition between singlet 1051 01:21:52,375 --> 01:21:55,200 and triplet using the approximations 1052 01:21:55,200 --> 01:21:57,200 for the description of the helium atom 1053 01:21:57,200 --> 01:21:58,350 we have done so far. 1054 01:22:01,980 --> 01:22:05,720 Since I don't want to end with such a cliffhanger, 1055 01:22:05,720 --> 01:22:09,290 let me just say, we have actually a selection rule 1056 01:22:09,290 --> 01:22:13,780 which says, we are not changing the total spin. 1057 01:22:13,780 --> 01:22:15,510 And you would say, hey, come on. 1058 01:22:15,510 --> 01:22:18,850 Can't I just take a magnetic field and flip one of the spin, 1059 01:22:18,850 --> 01:22:22,190 go from a triplet to a singlet state? 1060 01:22:22,190 --> 01:22:27,490 Well, the answer is no. 1061 01:22:27,490 --> 01:22:29,540 And let me just give it to you qualitatively 1062 01:22:29,540 --> 01:22:32,850 and deformalize it on Friday. 1063 01:22:32,850 --> 01:22:38,240 First, as far as transverse magnetic fields, rotating 1064 01:22:38,240 --> 01:22:42,450 magnetic fields, are concerned. transverse B fields. 1065 01:22:42,450 --> 01:22:47,050 Remember, transverse B fields create some f of the spin. 1066 01:22:47,050 --> 01:22:50,490 But both spins precess equally. 1067 01:22:50,490 --> 01:22:52,800 So you can never even classically, 1068 01:22:52,800 --> 01:22:55,400 you cannot change the angle between the two spins. 1069 01:22:55,400 --> 01:22:57,020 When the two spins are interparallel, 1070 01:22:57,020 --> 01:22:58,192 they stay interparallel. 1071 01:22:58,192 --> 01:23:00,150 When they stay parallel when they are parallel, 1072 01:23:00,150 --> 01:23:01,400 they stay parallel. 1073 01:23:01,400 --> 01:23:05,860 Or to say the transverse B field means 1074 01:23:05,860 --> 01:23:09,650 we have a coupling, sx, sy. 1075 01:23:09,650 --> 01:23:16,190 And sx and sy can be written as letter operators, 1076 01:23:16,190 --> 01:23:18,355 s plus and s minus. 1077 01:23:21,010 --> 01:23:24,820 And as you know, s plus and s minus only 1078 01:23:24,820 --> 01:23:27,330 change the magnetic quantum number. 1079 01:23:30,340 --> 01:23:35,530 But they do not change the value of the total s. 1080 01:23:35,530 --> 01:23:37,480 In other words, if you have a spin which 1081 01:23:37,480 --> 01:23:39,790 is s equals 1 triplet state, you can 1082 01:23:39,790 --> 01:23:43,490 change the angle, how the spin equals 1 points. 1083 01:23:43,490 --> 01:23:45,560 But it still will be spin 1 where 1084 01:23:45,560 --> 01:23:48,340 both electrons are aligned parallel. 1085 01:23:48,340 --> 01:23:51,640 There is no magnetic field which can selectively 1086 01:23:51,640 --> 01:23:57,390 talk to one spin and rotate spin 1 with respect to spin 2. 1087 01:23:57,390 --> 01:23:59,090 And coming to the other questions 1088 01:23:59,090 --> 01:24:03,250 about optical fields with a dipole operator, 1089 01:24:03,250 --> 01:24:06,510 the answer is also a resounding no. 1090 01:24:06,510 --> 01:24:12,130 Because the dipole operator of the electromagnetic field, 1091 01:24:12,130 --> 01:24:15,150 the dipole operator acts only on the spatial wave function. 1092 01:24:25,560 --> 01:24:29,340 Not on the spin part. 1093 01:24:29,340 --> 01:24:31,550 So a laser beam through the dipole operator 1094 01:24:31,550 --> 01:24:33,440 can never ever flip the spin. 1095 01:24:33,440 --> 01:24:35,640 It only acts on the spatial wave function. 1096 01:24:35,640 --> 01:24:39,780 So anyway, I wanted to just give you the answer why you cannot 1097 01:24:39,780 --> 01:24:43,470 go from singlet to triplet state with sort of our standard 1098 01:24:43,470 --> 01:24:46,785 operators, with the electric dipole operator or with 1099 01:24:46,785 --> 01:24:47,790 the rotating field. 1100 01:24:47,790 --> 01:24:51,230 And I hope it was worthwhile to explain in detail why each 1101 01:24:51,230 --> 01:24:53,020 of them cannot do it. 1102 01:24:53,020 --> 01:24:54,940 But on Friday, I explained to you 1103 01:24:54,940 --> 01:24:57,540 that there is a general symmetry behind it 1104 01:24:57,540 --> 01:24:59,300 that even more fancy combinations will not 1105 01:24:59,300 --> 01:25:00,435 be able to do that.