Published February 1, 1942
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Journal Article
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Precise Determination of the Fine Structure Constant from X-Ray Spin Doublet Splitting
- Creators
- Christy, R. F.
- Keller, J. M.
Abstract
Corrections to the Sommerfeld formula for the LII-LIII x-ray spin doublet splitting, to take into account departures from a pure Coulomb field for heavy elements caused by interactions between electrons, are calculated by using Dirac wave functions for a Coulomb field and calculating, with all relativistic corrections, the terms in the electron interaction of order e^2 i.e., of relative order 1/Z, compared to the Sommerfeld splitting. The result is applied to experimental data for elements varying from Z=60 to Z=92, to obtain a direct experimental value for the fine structure constant. By the method of least squares, we find 1/α=ℏc/e^2=136.93 with an estimated limit of error of 0.18.
Additional Information
©1942 The American Physical Society Received 17 December 1941 We gratefully acknowledge our indebtedness to Professor J.R. Oppenheimer for suggesting this problem, and for pointing out the method of calculation. We also wish to express our gratitude to the National Youth Administration for furnishing assistance in the numerical calculations.Files
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