Abstract
WE publish this week, as a special supplement, the substance of an address by Prof. N. Bohr on the development of the theory of atomic structure, and in particular of the latest form and tendencies of the quantum theory in their relation to mechanics. New points are raised which seem likely to be of such importance that some attempt at a general description may be of interest. The prevailing theory of atomic structure, which we owe so largely to Prof. Bohr himself, might be characterised as “the central orbit theory.” In this theory we visualise the atom as a nucleus surrounded by electrons. Each of these moves in a mechanical (but non-radiating) nearly central orbit, characterised by special fixed values of energy and angular momentum which are functions of two quantum numbers. The immense success of this theory in co-ordinating the facts of optical and X-ray spectroscopy and the general physical and chemical periodic properties of the elements is well known, and its correctness in broad outline is scarcely open to question. But it is equally certain that in its finer details the theory has proved inadequate. As soon, for example, as we begin to ask why the D-lines of sodium are a doublet instead of a single line, we leave the certain field of the theory for far less certain extensions. We can introduce formally the third quantum number necessary to “explain” the doubling (trebling, etc.) of spectral lines, and similarly the fourth quantum number necessary to “explain” their splitting in a magnetic field. Such “explanations” are elegant in form and convincing so far as they go, but when we try to interpret them on the basis of natural extensions of the mechanical model of the central orbit theory, we meet at every turn with perplexing contradictions which suggest that the proposed revision of the theory has up till now scarcely been sufficiently fundamental.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Atomic Structure and the Quantum Theory. Nature 116, 809–810 (1925). https://doi.org/10.1038/116809a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/116809a0