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Article: Advancing the theory of the hydrogen atom. (News Briefs).(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Journal of Research of the National Institute of Standards and Technology
- Article date:
- March 1, 2002
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 National Institute of Standards and Technology. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The hydrogen atom is the most basic atom from the point of view of atomic structure theory. Historically, efforts to understand its detailed properties have led to many advances in understanding fundamental physics. This atom is important not only as a model system that tests the limits of atomic theory and experiment, but it also provides information on fundamental physical constants, such as the Rydberg constant. In the past decade, the precision of the experiments has been improving rapidly, and improvements in the theory have been necessary to keep pace.
Over the past several years, a NIST-led project has carried out a precise calculation of the most basic ...