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juzbe
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Homework Statement
The problem is to determine which has a more dominant effect on the energy of a given state in mercury, spin-orbit interaction or the Zeeman effect, when the applied magnetic field B is about 2T.
Homework Equations
As long as the spin-orbit interaction is the dominant effect, I can calculate the Zeeman energy from
[tex]E_{Z}=\mu_{B}\g_{J}Bm_{J}[/tex],
but I'm at a loss trying to figure out whether this is a lot or very little compared to the spin-orbit interaction.
The Attempt at a Solution
The first-order spin-orbit correction to the energy of a hydrogen level is given by
[tex]E^{1}_{so}=\frac{E_{n}^{2}}{2mc^{2}}\left(\frac{n[j(j+1)-l(l+1)-s(s+1)]}{l(l+1/2)(l+1)}\right)[/tex]
How does this generalize to atoms with more than 1 electron? Can I just substitute for j, l, and s the atomic quantum numbers J, L, and S, and get a rough estimate? and if so, what do I substitute for [tex]E_{n)[/tex]? (I understand that for the exact answer I'd have to take into account the two electron's interaction with each other's orbitals plus some exchage terms as well, but all I really need to know is if the two figures are in the same ballpark...)