The constant is expressed for either hydrogen as, or at the limit of infinite nuclear mass as. In either case, the constant is used to express the limiting value of the highestwavenumber (inverse wavelength) of any photon that can be emitted from a hydrogen atom, or, alternatively, the wavenumber of the lowest-energy photon capable of ionizing a hydrogen atom from itsground state. Thehydrogen spectral series can be expressed simply in terms of the Rydberg constant for hydrogen and theRydberg formula.
Inatomic physics,Rydberg unit of energy, symbol Ry, corresponds to the energy of the photon whose wavenumber is the Rydberg constant, i.e. the ionization energy of the hydrogen atom in a simplified Bohr model.[citation needed]
The symbol means that the nucleus is assumed to be infinitely heavy, an improvement of the value can be made using thereduced mass of the atom:
with the mass of the nucleus. The corrected Rydberg constant is:
that for hydrogen, where is the mass of theproton, becomes:
Since the Rydberg constant is related to the spectrum lines of the atom, this correction leads to anisotopic shift between different isotopes. For example, deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen with a nucleus formed by a proton and aneutron (), was discovered thanks to its slightly shifted spectrum.[3]
TheBohr model explains the atomicspectrum of hydrogen (seeHydrogen spectral series) as well as various other atoms and ions. It is not perfectly accurate, but is a remarkably good approximation in many cases, and historically played an important role in the development ofquantum mechanics. The Bohr model posits that electrons revolve around the atomic nucleus in a manner analogous to planets revolving around the Sun.
In the simplest version of the Bohr model, the mass of the atomic nucleus is considered to be infinite compared to the mass of the electron,[7] so that the center of mass of the system, thebarycenter, lies at the center of the nucleus. This infinite mass approximation is what is alluded to with the subscript. The Bohr model then predicts that the wavelengths of hydrogen atomic transitions are (seeRydberg formula):
wheren1 andn2 are any two different positive integers (1, 2, 3, ...), and is the wavelength (in vacuum) of the emitted or absorbed light, giving
where andM is the total mass of the nucleus. This formula comes from substituting thereduced mass of the electron.
The Rydberg constant was one of the most precisely determined physical constants, with a relative standard uncertainty of1.1×10−12.[2] This precision constrains the values of the other physical constants that define it.[8]
Since the Bohr model is not perfectly accurate, due tofine structure,hyperfine splitting, and other such effects, the Rydberg constant cannot bedirectly measured at very high accuracy from theatomic transition frequencies of hydrogen alone. Instead, the Rydberg constant is inferred from measurements of atomic transition frequencies in three different atoms (hydrogen,deuterium, andantiprotonic helium). Detailed theoretical calculations in the framework ofquantum electrodynamics are used to account for the effects of finite nuclear mass, fine structure, hyperfine splitting, and so on. Finally, the value of is determined from thebest fit of the measurements to the theory.[9]
The last expression in the first equation shows that the wavelength of light needed to ionize a hydrogen atom is 4π/α times the Bohr radius of the atom.
The second equation is relevant because its value is the coefficient for the energy of the atomic orbitals of a hydrogen atom:.
^Pohl, Randolf; Antognini, Aldo; Nez, François; Amaro, Fernando D.; Biraben, François; Cardoso, João M. R.; Covita, Daniel S.; Dax, Andreas; Dhawan, Satish; Fernandes, Luis M. P.; Giesen, Adolf; Graf, Thomas; Hänsch, Theodor W.; Indelicato, Paul; Julien, Lucile; Kao, Cheng-Yang; Knowles, Paul; Le Bigot, Eric-Olivier; Liu, Yi-Wei; Lopes, José A. M.; Ludhova, Livia; Monteiro, Cristina M. B.; Mulhauser, Françoise; Nebel, Tobias; Rabinowitz, Paul; Dos Santos, Joaquim M. F.; Schaller, Lukas A.; Schuhmann, Karsten; Schwob, Catherine; Taqqu, David (2010). "The size of the proton".Nature.466 (7303):213–216.Bibcode:2010Natur.466..213P.doi:10.1038/nature09250.PMID20613837.S2CID4424731.
^P.J. Mohr, B.N. Taylor, and D.B. Newell (2015), "The 2014 CODATA Recommended Values of the Fundamental Physical Constants" (Web Version 7.0). This database was developed by J. Baker, M. Douma, andS. Kotochigova. Available:http://physics.nist.gov/constants. National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899.Link to R∞,Link to hcR∞. Published inMohr, Peter J.; Taylor, Barry N.; Newell, David B. (2012). "CODATA recommended values of the fundamental physical constants: 2010".Reviews of Modern Physics.84 (4):1527–1605.arXiv:1203.5425.Bibcode:2012RvMP...84.1527M.doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.84.1527.S2CID103378639""{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link) andMohr, Peter J.; Taylor, Barry N.; Newell, David B. (2012). "CODATA Recommended Values of the Fundamental Physical Constants: 2010".Journal of Physical and Chemical Reference Data.41 (4): 043109.arXiv:1507.07956.Bibcode:2012JPCRD..41d3109M.doi:10.1063/1.4724320""{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link).