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American Journal of Physics

Sommerfeld's elliptical atomic orbits revisited—A useful preliminary to the study of quantum mechanics

Tony Deeney, Colm T O'Sullivan

Published Aug 26, 2014• 14 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The Bohr-Sommerfeld atomic model is recast in the language of wave-particle duality and it is shown that requirements equivalent to the Sommerfeld-Wilson quantisation conditions arise naturally in this context. It is suggested that treating the one-electron atom in this way provides a useful introduction for students prior to encountering the more formal analysis based on the solution of the Schrödinger equation.

DOI
10.1119/1.4881955

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European Journal Of Physics Education•Jan 1, 2011•0 citations
The Bohr-Sommerfeld atomic model is recast in the language of wave-particle duality and it is shown that requirements equivalent to the Sommerfeld-Wilson quantisation conditions arise naturally in this context. It is suggested that treating the one-electron atom in this way provides a useful introduction for students prior to encountering the more formal analysis based on the solution of the Schrödinger equation.
Abstract We review the Bohr atomic model, where certain conditions (quantum conditions) were used to select certain “allowed” circular orbits for the electrons in an atom. Sommerfeld realized that a more generalized condition, applied to the action variables, would be consistent with the Bohr condition and also allow elliptical orbits. This condition amounted to the quantization of the phase space occupied by an orbit. This had independently been suggested by Planck. We also discuss the similarities between classical mechanics and the geometric optics limit of a wave theory.
The purpose of this work is to present the atomic model proposed by Sommerfeld. We outline the classical calculation of the elliptical orbit and then apply the Wilson–Sommerfeld quantization rules to obtain expressions for the quantization of energy and orbit semi-axes. We then apply the relativistic theory to solve the problem of degenerate orbits. Thus, we see that the Sommerfeld atom is a very rich topic, involving the integration of different subjects ranging from Lagrangian mechanics to relativity, as well as plane geometry and differential equations.
Niels Bohr’s model of the hydrogen and hydrogen-like atoms, in which the electron is allowed to revolve in certain circular orbits around the nucleus, was extended by Arnold Sommerfeld to allow for the possibility of elliptical orbits. Each elliptical orbit was constrained by two quantization conditions specified by a positive integer nφ and a non-negative integer nr. If, in the presence of the attractive Coulomb force between the electron and the nucleus, the dynamics of the atom were taken to be governed by the Newtonian laws of motion, the energy Ɛ of the two-particle system was found to be a function of the positive integer n = nr + nφ. The atomic energy levels thus exhibited an n-fold degeneracy, which would be lifted in the presence of external electric or magnetic fields, thus accounting for the fine-structure of the spectral lines emitted by the atom—phenomena observed, respectively, in the Stark effect and the Zeeman effect. Sommerfeld also examined the behavior of his elliptical orbits by allowing the revolving electron to obey Einstein’s relativistic dynamics. In this case, the energy-level degeneracies were lifted (even in the absence of external perturbations), and the elliptical orbits were found to precess around the nucleus—similarly to the precession of, say, the orbit of the planet Mercury around the Sun. What is astonishing about Sommerfeld’s relativistic expression of the energy Ɛ as a function of nφ and nr is that it is precisely the same expression as obtained for hydrogen and hydrogen-like atoms from Dirac’s equation, which came more than a decade later. Recall that the spin of the electron was not yet discovered when Sommerfeld developed his model, and that in Dirac’s fully-relativistic quantum mechanics, the spectral fine-structure arises from the coupling of the electron’s spin to its orbital motion. The present paper provides a streamlined yet detailed account of Sommerfeld’s elliptical orbits in hopes of bringing about a deeper appreciation for the miraculous coincidence of Sommerfeld’s result with that derived from Dirac’s equation.