The Lamb Shift refers to a small difference in energy levels of the hydrogen atom that arises from quantum electrodynamics (QED) effects. Specifically, it is the splitting of the energy levels of the 2S and 2P states of hydrogen, which was first measured by Willis Lamb and Robert Retherford in 1947. This phenomenon occurs due to the interactions between the electron and vacuum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field, leading to shifts in the energy levels that are not predicted by the Dirac equation alone.
The Lamb Shift can be understood as a manifestation of the electron's coupling to virtual photons, causing a slight energy shift that can be expressed mathematically as:
where is the wave function of the electron at the nucleus. The experimental confirmation of the Lamb Shift was crucial in validating QED and has significant implications for our understanding of atomic structure and fundamental interactions in physics.
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