Why electron does not fall into nucleus from orbit of an atom? As accelerated charged particle radiates energy, it should lose energy.
Asked
Active
Viewed 3,872 times
1 Answers
2
When we talk about this problem, we implicitly assume that there is a continuum of energy states into which the charged particle can "fall" into, as it keeps radiating away energy.
Quantum Mechanics provides a refinement to this idea; for the lowest energy states inside the Hydrogen atom, the energy states simply aren't continuous. They go like $E_{n}=-k/n^{2}$, for positive integers $n$. So the electron cannot "continuously" lose energy; when it does gain or lose energy, it transiently gains or loses photons to move from one discrete energy level to another.
When the electron is momentarily in a very large $n$ Hydrogen atom state, it may emit photons each of very small spurts of energy $ k(\frac{1}{n^{2}}-\frac{1}{(n+1)^{2}})\propto \frac{1}{n^{3}}$, and almost continuously "fall" in the ladder of energy states, till it reaches the $n=1$ energy state. This is where you get the approximate classical behaviour.
Aritro Pathak
- 741