L

Landé’s g-factor and g-formula

Klaus Hentschel

In 1919, the young theoretician Alfred Landé (1888–1976) in Frankfurt am Main

showed in his habilitation thesis that satisfactory agreement could be reached be-
tween observed splittings of spectral lines in the  Zeeman effect if one assumed
that, in general,  electrons contribute more to the total energy of the system than
had been expected according to classical electron theory.
Instead of μ·B = μ0 mJ , set μ·B = g μ0 mJ with μ the electron’s magnetic mo-
ment, μ0 Bohr’s magneton: μ0 = −e/2m and mJ the magnetic quantum number.
The so-called Landé g-factor thus describes deviations of experimentally observed
magnetic moments from the classical case with g = 1. According to Landé, in
general

J (J + 1)S(S + 1) − L(L + 1)
g = (L + 2S)g · J/J 2 = 1 +
2J (J + 1)

Under the assumption of what later came to be called  Russell-Saunders coupling,

Landé could also derive the ratio of the intervals in a Zeeman multiplet. A physical
explanation of the foregoing has to make use of the then widely popular  vec-
tor model.
In the  vector model (more fully described in [1] or [2]), the total angular mo-
mentum J is the vectorial sum J = L+S, with L angular momentum of the electrons,
and S the spin.  Spin; Stern–Gerlach experiment; Vector model.
Then the total magnetic moment of the atomic system is given by μ = μ0 (L +
2S). Because the spin contributes twice as much to the total magnetic moment as
does the orbit, μ is not parallel to J, but precesses around J. In an external magnetic
field B, the component of magnetic moment μ in the direction of J yields a con-
tribution of −μJ · B. Now, after a short calculation, Landé’s g-factor as defined by
g = μ · B/μ0 mJ results:

J (J + 1)S(S + 1) − L(L + 1)
g = (L + 2S)g · J/J 2 = 1 +
2J (J + 1)

Thus, retrospectively, Landés g-formula appears to be a straightforward conse-

quence of quantum mechanics. But Landé arrived at this formula without that later
knowledge, in a single-handed effort to come to grips with observed regularities in
the splitting of spectral lines, emitted in a magnetic field, the so-called  Zeeman
effect.

D. Greenberger et al. (eds.), Compendium of Quantum Physics: Concepts, Experiments, 336

History and Philosophy,  c Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009
Large-Angle Scattering 337

According to Landé’s own reminiscences: “Thus, working quite alone in Frank-

furt am Main without encouragement from colleagues, I found the key, the g-factor,
which then opened the drawer with the g-formula in it, while whole groups of older
physicists, even the great atomist Sommerfeld, remained in the dark” . . . “I cracked
the magnetic code of atomic structure by the g-factor, followed its applications in
the g-formula.”

Primary Literature

1. G. Herzberg: Atomic Spectra and Atomic Structure (New York: Prentice-Hall 1937, 2nd edn.
New York: Dover Publications 1944)
2. C. Candler: Atomic Spectra and the Vector Model (Princeton: Van Nostrand 1937)

Secondary Literature

3. A. Barut: Alfred Landé, in: Physiker und Astronomen in Frankfurt (Neuwied: Metzner, 1989),
38–45, also available online as http://www.physik.uni-frankfurt.de/paf/paf38.html
4. P. Forman: Alfred Landé and the anomalous Zeeman Effect, 1919–1921. Historical Studies in L
the Physical Sciences 2, 153–261 (1970)

Large-Angle Scattering
Brigitte Falkenburg

In the  scattering experiments of  particle physics, large-angle scattering in-

dicates the recoil of the scattered “probe” particles at an impenetrable small or
point-like scattering center. In the history of subatomic physics, it happened twice
that unexpected large-angle scattering was observed in a crucial experiment. Both
discoveries are based on a classical or  semi-classical model of the atomic nucleus
( Rutherford atom).

Rutherford Scattering

In order to investigate subatomic structure, Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937) scat-

tered α particles from radioactive radiation sources off thin gold foil. In 1909,
Rutherford’s assistants Hans Geiger (1882–1945) and Ernest Marsden (1889–1970)