TY - GEN
T1 - Spin-orbit coupling in the hydrogen atom, the Thomas precession, and the exact solution of Dirac's equation
AU - Mansuripur, Masud
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© COPYRIGHT SPIE. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Bohr's model of the hydrogen atom can be extended to account for the observed spin-orbit interaction, either with the introduction of the Thomas precession,1 or with the stipulation that, during a spin-flip transition, the orbital radius remains intact. In other words, if there is a desire to extend Bohr's model to accommodate the spin of the electron, then experimental observations mandate the existence of the Thomas precession, which is a questionable hypothesis, or the existence of artificially robust orbits during spin-flip transitions. This is tantamount to admitting that Bohr's model, which is a poor man's way of understanding the hydrogen atom, is of limited value, and that one should really rely on Dirac's equation for the physical meaning of spin, for the mechanism that gives rise to the gyromagnetic coefficient g = 2, for Zeeman splitting, for relativistic corrections to Schrödinger's equation, for Darwin's term, and for the correct 12 factor in the spin-orbit coupling energy.
AB - Bohr's model of the hydrogen atom can be extended to account for the observed spin-orbit interaction, either with the introduction of the Thomas precession,1 or with the stipulation that, during a spin-flip transition, the orbital radius remains intact. In other words, if there is a desire to extend Bohr's model to accommodate the spin of the electron, then experimental observations mandate the existence of the Thomas precession, which is a questionable hypothesis, or the existence of artificially robust orbits during spin-flip transitions. This is tantamount to admitting that Bohr's model, which is a poor man's way of understanding the hydrogen atom, is of limited value, and that one should really rely on Dirac's equation for the physical meaning of spin, for the mechanism that gives rise to the gyromagnetic coefficient g = 2, for Zeeman splitting, for relativistic corrections to Schrödinger's equation, for Darwin's term, and for the correct 12 factor in the spin-orbit coupling energy.
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U2 - 10.1117/12.2529885
DO - 10.1117/12.2529885
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85073239414
T3 - Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering
BT - Spintronics XII
A2 - Drouhin, Henri-Jean M.
A2 - Wegrowe, Jean-Eric
A2 - Razeghi, Manijeh
A2 - Jaffres, Henri
PB - SPIE
T2 - Spintronics XII 2019
Y2 - 11 August 2019 through 15 August 2019
ER -