Saturday, February 04, 2006

allowed transition - definition - atomic physics and quantum mechanics

Definition: a transition between quantum states that is not prohibited by any quantum rule.

Examples: An electron in an atom can make a transition to a higher energy orbital on absorbing a photon with the corresponding energy, provided the various quantum selection rules are obeyed. The primary rule is that the angular momentum quantum number must change by plus or minus one, although there are several more rules that further limit the exact target orbital.

No comments: