Highly Excited States

Abstract

In the previous chapters we have discussed in much detail the influence of strong magnetic fields on low-lying states. The crucial point in the whole discussion was that the atoms were allowed to be exposed to magnetic fields of such strengths as to make the effects of the magnetic field of the same order of magnitude as, or even larger than, the Coulomb binding forces acting in low-lying states in the atom. We had already noted in Sect. 3.1.1 that the reference magnetic field, which is obtained by setting electrons on Bohr orbits and requiring the equality of Lorentz and Coulomb forces, scales with the inverse cube of the principal quantum number n p $${B_{np}} = \frac{{{B_0}}}{{{2_{n_p^3}}}} \approx \frac{{4.70 \times {{10}^5}T}}{{{2_{n_p^3}}}} \approx 8.3{\left( {\frac{{30}}{{{n_p}}}} \right)^3}T,$$ ((10.1)) so that the strong-field situation, which is encountered for low-lying states only in the field strengths of white dwarfs or neutron stars, can be realized for highly excited states (n p > 30, e.g.) even in terrestrial laboratory field strengths of several Tesla. The discussion of the influence of strong laboratory magnetic fields on highly excited states of the hydrogen atom is the subject of this chapter.KeywordsPeriodic OrbitStrong Magnetic FieldRydberg StatePrincipal Quantum NumberUnstable Periodic OrbitThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.