High-Flying Electrons May Provide New Test of Quantum Theory

April 30, 2008 | Source: PhysOrg.com

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and Max Planck Institute for Physics in Germany believe they can achieve a significant increase in the accuracy of one of the fundamental constants of nature, the Rydberg constant (the quantity that specifies the precise color of light that is emitted when an electron jumps from one energy level to another in an atom) by boosting an electron to an orbit as far as possible from the atomic nucleus that binds it.

The experiment would mean more accurate identifications of elements in everything from stars to environmental pollutants and could put the modern theory of the atom to the most stringent tests yet.