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Physics LibreTexts

9.7: Atomic hydrogen

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What is meant by the oscillator strength of Hα? This question may well be asked, recalling that Hα technically is not a single line, but consists of three transition arrays, three multiplets, seven lines, and I don’t think we ever worked out quite how many Zeeman and hyperfine components.

The hydrogen atom is a two-body system, and for such a system the wavefunction and its eigenvalues (energy levels) can be worked out explicitly in algebraic terms. The same is true of the transition moments and hence the strengths of each Zeeman and hyperfine component. The strength of the entire “line” of Hα is then merely the sum of the strengths of all the Zeeman and hyperfine components of which it is composed. Then the weighted oscillator strength of Hα is merely calculated from equation 9.5.6. As for the question: What is ϖ? – the question need not arise, since all one is likely to need is the product ϖf. However if this has been worked out by adding the strengths of all the Zeeman and hyperfine components, it would be 4n2, which, for the lower level of Hα, is 8.

For the record, here are the weighted oscillator strengths, ϖf, for the first four “lines” of the Lyman and Balmer series for H.

LymanBalmerα0.5553.139β0.1050.588γ0.03870.220δ0.01860.103


This page titled 9.7: Atomic hydrogen is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Jeremy Tatum via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.

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