Does a Completed Electron Orbital Differ?

[Ryan Reed]

In an atom of something like oxygen with a completed 2p orbital, do the paired electrons within the orbital behave differently than the same 2p orbital that is uncompleted? Bear with me and try to understand this question as I am a little fuzzy on the subject and I don't know how else to ask this. If I say anything wrong, please correct me.

 

[blue_leaf77]

Well, if your question is whether the electrons behave differently in both cases, then yes obviously they must be different. In particular, the total orbital and spin angular momentum for a closed shell atom are zero.

 

[Ryan Reed]

Well, if your question is whether the electrons behave differently in both cases, then yes obviously they must be different. In particular, the total orbital and spin angular momentum for a closed shell atom are zero.

How would the closed shell behave differently from its incomplete version?

 

[blue_leaf77]

For example if we put a closed shell atom in a weak magnetic field, and suppose we can neglect nuclear spin, there will be no splitting in the energy spectrum. In contrast, if one electron were removed from the same atom, splitting due to Zeeman effect will be observed.

 

[DrDu]

For a many electron atom, orbitals are no longer uniquely defined, as they are solutions of a one-electron hamiltonian. In general, doubly occupied orbitals will differ in size and energy from singly occupied ones. For a He atom, the variational optimization of the orbitals is a popular homework:

http://www.google.de/url?sa=t&rct=j...3mvxF6SIckMks4w&bvm=bv.97653015,d.bGQ&cad=rja