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I'm revising for my exams at the moment and am seeing this notation everywhere

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Can anyone tell me what these mean?

Qmechanic
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user45747
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1 Answers1

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The expressions on either side of the equals sign are called term symbols. They specify the state of a system of electrons and they have the form $^{2S+1}L_J$. So for example $^{2}D_{5/2}$ corresponds to a system of electrons with $2S+1=2$, or in other words $S=1/2$; $L=2$; and $J=5/2$. They way I got $L=2$ was to use the correspondence $S \leftrightarrow 0,P \leftrightarrow 1,D \leftrightarrow 2,F \leftrightarrow 3,G \leftrightarrow 4, \cdots$

I believe that the arrows indicate that there has been a transition between two states.

Brian Moths
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