Atomphysik – Wikipedia

The Atomphysik is a sub -area of ​​physics that – in a broader sense – deals with the structure of the atoms from atomic nucleus and electron shell as well as their interactions.

In today’s scientific usage, the term usually only includes the examination of the structure and reaction methods of the atomic shell, while researching atomic nuclei – nuclear physics – is no longer counted on atomic physics. Coral physics is still often fed to nuclear physics colloquially and journalistic ^[first] Or confused the two disciplines.

Atomic physics examines the atomic shell and the processes in it, including the distribution of the electrons to the quantum mechanical energy levels. This describes the observed spectral lines of the atoms and the structure of the periodic system of the elements. Atom physics deals with the interaction of the atoms and ions with other atoms or ions – and thus the shapes of chemical binding – as well as with solid body, with electromagnetic radiation and particle radiation, with electrical and magnetic fields.

Nuclear physics was created as a sub -area of ​​atomic physics and was expected to be around the 1950s. In today’s usage, atomic physics mostly only views the atomic nucleus in its function as the building block of the atom, while the nuclear physics independent of it deals with the atomic nucleus itself, its structure and its reactions.

The idea that all matter is composed of the smallest particles, the atoms, can already be found in the natural philosophy of antiquity, for example at Leukipp and his student democrit. However, it was only underpinned empirically in the 19th century by investigations by John Dalton, Joseph Louis Gay-Lossac and Ludwig Boltzmann. With the development of spectroscopy, the question of an inner structure and dynamics of the atoms came up. This finally led to the development of quantum mechanics, since classical physics fully failed here.

On the history of atomic physics from 1919 to 1965 see Werner Heisenberg: The part and the whole: conversations in the area of ​​atomic physics . Piper Verlag 2002 (8th ed.), ISBN 349222978. See also Arnold Flammersfeld: Problems of today’s atomic physics (= Göttingen University speeches. Issue 34). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen/Zurich 1962.

The most important research area of ​​today’s nuclear physics is the quantum look. Often only this term is now mentioned in order to avoid the risk of confusion of nuclear physics. Among other things, the quantum look deals with precision measurements of nuclear energy levels, from which natural constants can be determined with great accuracy and can be tested by fundamental theories. Investigations on exotic atoms can be tackled by questions of core and elementary particle physics using methods of atomic physics. With ultra -abrases, the dynamic processes in the electron shell are tried to observe directly. In ion traps, individual ionized atoms can be caught for a long time and examined with the highest precision. The development of laser cooling and the magneto-optical trap (Mot) have made studies on ultra-old gases and Bose-Einstein-capacases, but also on extremely rare isotopes.

Atomic physics has produced a variety of applications, including the laser or atomic clock. Investigation methods that were originally developed for atomic physical experiments have now found a range that extends far beyond, such as minor spin resonance in medical imaging, absorption and emission spectroscopy in chemical analysis, or photoelectron spectroscopy in materials science.

• Niels Bohr (1885–1962), Danish physicist; Nobel Prize for Physics 1922 (structure of the atoms and its radiation), drilling nuclear model, correspondence principle, principle of complementarity
• Steven Chu (* 1948), American physicist and politician; Nobel Prize for Physics 1997 (influencing atoms using lasers, laser cooling), atomic traps and atomic clocks, atomic physical measurements
• Claude Cohen-Tannoudji (* 1933), French physicist; Nobel Prize for Physics 1997 (cooling and capturing atoms with laser light), quantum mechanics, nuclear and molecular physics
• Edward Uhler Condon (1902–1974), American physicist; Franck Condon principle, nuclear energy, radar
• Paul Dirac (1902–1984), British physicist and co -founder of quantum physics, Nobel Prize for Physics 1933 (nuclear theory, with Schrödinger); Dirac-Kamm, Fermi-Dirac Statistics, Dirac-Spinor, Dirac-Spinor, Dirac equation, Dirac function, Delta distribution, Dirac constant, DiracMs, Dirac hypothesis, postulate of the magnetic monopoly
• Enrico Fermi (1901–1954), Italian-American nuclear physicist; Nobel Prize for Physics 1938, quantum mechanics, quantum statistics, Fermi-Dirac statistics for fermions, fermis golden rule, fermi area, fermi-resonance, Thomas-fermi model, first controlled nuclear chain reaction, atomic bomb, fermy, fermium, fermi level, fermi level Problems
• Robert Hofstadter (1915-1990), US physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics 1961 for work on electron scattering on atomic nuclei, determination of the size and charge distribution on protons and neutrons
• Robert Oppenheimer (1904–1967), American theoretical physicist, scientific director of the Manhattan project for the development of the atomic bomb
• Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937), British experimental physicist; Nobel Prize for Chemistry 1908 (radioactive decay of the elements and the chemistry of radioactive substances), discoverer of the atomic core, author of the Rutherford’s nuclear model, postulate of the neutron
• Arnold Sommerfeld (1868–1951), German mathematician and theoretical physicist; Bohr summer field atom model, fine structure constant, summer field theory of metals
• Johannes Diderik van der Waals (1837–1923), Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics 1910, attraction between atoms, van-der Waals forces, van-der Waals-Radius, van der Waals equation

• Karl Bechert, Christian Gerthsen: Atomphysik . of Gruyter, Berlin 1929.
• Wolfgang Karl Ernst Finkelnburg: Introduction to atomic physics . 2nd Edition. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg 1941.
• Walter Weizel: Electrons, atoms, molecules . Volk u. Wissen Verl., Berlin, Leipzig 1949.
• Theo Mayer-Kuckuk: Atomic physics: an introduction; With 6 tables and 1 spectral panel . Teubner, Stuttgart 1977, ISBN 3-519-03042-X.
• Niels Bohr: Atomic physics and human knowledge: essays and lectures from 1930 to 1961 . Vieweg, Braunschweig 1985, ISBN 3-528-08910-5.
• Bernhard Bröcker: DTV-Atlas Atom Physics: With 116 imaging pages in color . 6. Edition. German Paperback Verl., Munich 1997, ISBN 3-423-03009-7.
• Werner Heisenberg: The part and the whole: conversations in the area of ​​atomic physics . 2nd ed., Unexplained. Taschenbuchausg. Piper, Munich, Zurich 1998, ISBN 3-492-22297-8.
• Hermann Haken, Hans Christoph Wolf: Atomic and quantum physics: Introduction to the experimental and theoretical foundations . With… 32 tables 177 tasks and complete solutions. 8., updated and ad. Edition. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg 2004, ISBN 978-3-642-62142-0.
• Klaus Bethge, Gernot Gruber, Thomas Stöhlker: Physics of the atoms and molecules: an introduction . 2., Erw. And over -the -arb. Edition. Wiley-VCH, Weinheim 2004, ISBN 3-527-40463-5.

1. ↑ Atomic physics – all news and information from F.A.Z. on the subject. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, accessed on September 21, 2021 .