Effects of the Magnetic Moments of the Interacting Particles on the Coulomb Potential: Application to Hydrogen Atom

Abstract

By using a Coulomb potential, modified by the interaction between the magnetic moments of the electron and proton, we have calculated the energy levels of the hydrogen atom. We have obtained fine and hyperfine structure as well as the Lamb shift. All these effects are obtained from a simple formula which is a direct solution of the Schrödinger equation. The obtained results are in a good agreement with experimental data. For example, the hyperfine splitting between the energy levels of the states 1S1/2,1 and 1S1/2,o is of the order of 5.6×10-6 eV, which is the source of the famous “21 cm line” which is strongly useful to radio astronomers for tracking hydrogen in the interstellar medium of galaxies. The energy of the states nP1/2 is lower than those of the states nS1/2 (Lamb shift) because in the first case the interaction between the magnetic moments of the proton and the electron spins is diminished by the spin-orbit coupling.