
5
Zeeman theory
•In most atoms, there exist several
electron configurations with the same energy
so that transitions between these configurations
and another correspond to a single spectral line.
•The presence of a magnetic field breaks this
degeneracy
•since the magnetic field interacts differently with
electrons with different quantum numbers, slightly
modifying their energies.
•The result is that, where there were several
configurations with the same energy,
•They now have different energies, giving rise to
several very close spectral lines.