FINE STRUCTURE CONSTANT AND THE GOLDEN SECTION

RADOSLAV RASKO JOVANOVIC

FINE STRUCTURE CONSTANT

and
THE GOLDEN SECTION

Tehnical Press 2011

CONTENTS

1. Bohr model
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Value Bohr`s radius

Value electron mass - electron rest mass
Elementary charge and The Golden Section
Fine Structure Constant
Planck constant and number PI

Bohr model
In atomic physics, the Bohr model depicts the atom as a small, positively charged nucleus surrounded by electrons in
orbit - similar in structure to the solar system, but with electrostatic forces providing attraction, rather than gravity.
Its key success was in explaining the Rydberg formula for the spectral emission lines of atomic hydrogen; while the
Rydberg formula had been known experimentally, it did not gain a theoretical underpinning until the Bohr model was
introduced. The Bohr model is not a complete model of the atom, and fails to explain many of the finer structures
seen in atoms. As a theory, it has been replaced by quantum mechanics, and thus may be considered to be an
obsolete scientific theory. However, because of its simplicity, the Bohr model is still commonly taught to introduce
students to quantum mechanics.
In the early part of the 20th century, experiments by Ernest Rutherford and others had established that atoms
consisted of a diffuse cloud of negatively charged electrons surrounding a small, dense, positively charged nucleus.
Given this experimental data, it is quite natural to consider a planetary model for the atom, with electrons orbiting a
sun-like nucleus. However, a naive planetary model has several difficulties, the most serious of which is the loss of
energy by synchrotron radiation. That is, a moving electric charge emits electromagnetic waves which carry energy;
thus, with each orbit around the nucleus, the electron would radiate away a bit of its orbital energy, gradually
spiralling inwards to the nucleus until the atom was no more. A quick calculation shows that this would happen
almost instantly; thus, the naive planetary theory cannot explain why atoms are extremely long-lived.
The naive planetary model also failed to explain atomic spectra, the observed discrete spectrum of light emitted by
electrically excited atoms. Late 19th century experiments with electric discharges through various low-pressure
gasses in evacuated glass tubes had shown that atoms will emit light (that is, electromagnetic radiation), but only at
certain discrete frequencies. A naive planetary model cannot explain this.
To overcome these difficulties, Niels Bohr proposed, in 1913, what is now called the Bohr model of the atom. The key
ideas were:
(1) The orbiting electrons existed in orbits that had discrete quantized energies. That is, not every orbit is possible
but only certain specific ones.
(2) The laws of classical mechanics do not apply when electrons make the jump from one allowed orbit to another.
(3) When an electron makes a jump from one orbit to another the energy difference is carried off (or supplied) by a
single quantum of light (called a photon) which has an energy equal to the energy difference between the two
orbitals.
(4) The allowed orbits depend on quantized (discrete) values of orbital angular momentum, L according to the
equation

Where n = 1,2,3, and is called the angular momentum quantum number, and h is Planck's constant.
1

Assumption (4) states that the lowest value of n is 1. This corresponds to a smallest possible radius of 0.0529 nm. This
is known as the Bohr radius. Once an electron is in this lowest orbit, it can get no closer to the proton.

The Bohr model is sometimes known as the semiclassical model of the atom, as it adds some primitive quantization
conditions to what is otherwise a classical mechanics treatment. The Bohr model is certainly not a full quantum
mechanical description of the atom. Assumption 2) states that the laws of classical mechanics don't apply during a
quantum jump, but it doesn't state what laws should replace classical mechanics. Assumption 4) states that angular
momentum is quantised but does not explain why.
Several enhancements to the Bohr model were proposed; most notably the Sommerfeld model or Bohr-Sommerfeld
model, which attempted to add support for elliptical orbits to the Bohr model's circular orbits. This model
2

supplemented condition (4) with an additional radial quantization condition, the Sommerfeld-Wilson quantization
condition

where p is the generalized momentum conjugate to the radial generalized coordinate q.

The Bohr-Sommerfeld model proved to be extremely difficult and unweildy when its mathematical treatment was
further fleshed out. In particular, the application of traditional perturbation theory from classical planetary
mechanics lead to further confusions and difficulties. In the end, the model was abandoned in favour of the the full
quantum mechanical treatment of the hydrogen atom, in 1925, using Schroedinger's wave mechanics.
However, this is not to say that the Bohr model was without its successes. Calculations based on the BohrSommerfeld model were able to accurately explain a number of more complex atomic spectral effects. For example,
up to first-order perturbation, the Bohr model and quantum mechanics make the same predictions for the spectral
line splitting in the Stark effect. At higher-order perturbations, howevr, the Bohr model and quantum mechanics
differ, and measurements of the Stark effect under high field strengths helped confirm the correctness of quantum
mechanics over the Bohr model.

The Bohr model does make accurate predictions that fit well with experimental data, using, at its core, only a simple
set of assumptions. However, it is not a complete picture. It is important to remember that, like other models, it is
only an aid to understanding. Atoms are not really little solar systems.
The Bohr model is accurate only for one-electron systems such as the hydrogen atom or singly-ionized helium. This
section uses the Bohr model to derive the energy levels of hydrogen.
The derivation starts with three simple assumptions:

1) All particles are wavelike, and an electron's wavelength , is related to its velocity v by:

where h is Planck`s Constant, and me is the mass of the electron. Bohr did not make this assumption (known
as the de Broglie hypothesis) in his original derivation, because it hadn't been proposed at the time. However
it allows the following intuitive statement.

2) The circumference of the electron's orbit must be an integer multiple of its wavelength:

where r is the radius of the electron's orbit, and n is a positive integer.

3) The electron is held in orbit by the coulomb force. That is, the coulomb force is equal to the centripetal
force:

where k = 1 / 40, and e is the charge of the electron.

These are three equations with three unknowns: , r, v. After solving this system of equations to find an equation for
just v, it is placed into the equation for the total energy of the electron:

Because of the virial theorem, the total energy simplifies to

Substituting, one obtains the energy of the different levels of hydrogen:

Thus, the lowest energy level of hydrogen (n = 1) is about -13.6 eV. The next energy level (n = 2) is -3.4 eV. The third
(n = 3) is -1.51 eV, and so on. Note that these energies are less than zero, meaning that the electron is in a bound
state with the proton. Positive energy states correspond to the ionized atom, where the electron is no longer bound,
but is in a scatterng state.
The Rydberg formula describes the transitions or quantum jumps between one energy level and another. When the
electron moves from one energy level to another, a photon is given off. Using the derived formula for the different
'energy' levels of hydrogen one may determine the 'wavelengths' of light that a hydrogen atom can give off.
The energy of photons that a hydrogen atom can give off are given by the difference of two hydrogen energy levels:

where nf means the final energy level, and ni means the initial energy level. It is assumed that the final energy
level is less than the initial energy level.

Since the energy of a photon is

the wavelength of the photon given off is

The above is known as the Rydberg formula. This formula was known in the nineteenth century to scientists studying
spectroscopy, but there was no theoretical justification for the formula until Bohr derived it, more or less along the
lines above.
The Bohr model gives an incorrect value
for the ground state orbital angular momentum. The angular
momentum in the true ground state is known to be zero.
The Bohr model also has difficulty with or fails to explain:

The spectra of larger atoms. At best, it can make some approximate predictions about the emission spectra
for atoms with a single outer-shell electron (atoms in the lithium group.)
The relative intensities of spectral lines; although in some simple cases, it was able to provide reasonable
estimates (for example, calculations by Kramers for the Stark effect).
The existence of fine structure and hyperfine structure in spectral lines.
The Zeeman effect - changes in spectral lines due to external magnetic fields

Ernest Rutherford

Value Bohr`s radius

On the basis of Rutherford's theories, Bohr published his model of atomic structure in 1913, introducing the theory of
electrons traveling in orbits around the atom's nucleus, the chemical properties of the element being largely
determined by the number of electrons in the outer orbits. Bohr also introduced the idea that an electron could drop
from a higher-energy orbit to a lower one, emitting a photon (light quantum) of discrete energy. This became a basis
for quantum theory.

Niels Henrik David Bohr was born in Copenhagen, Denmark in

1885. Bohr studied as an undergraduate, graduate and, under
Christian Christiansen, as a doctoral student at Copenhagen
University, receiving his doctorate in 1911. As a post-doctoral
student, Bohr first conducted experiments under J. J. Thomson at
Trinity College, Cambridge. He then went on to study under
Ernest Rutherford at the University of Manchester in England. In
1916, Niels Bohr became a professor at the University of
Copenhagen, and director of the newly constructed "Institute of
Theoretical Physics" in 1920. In 1922, Bohr was awarded the
Nobel Prize in physics. In 1941, during the German occupation of
Denmark in World War II, Bohr was visited by Heisenberg in
Copenhagen . In 1943, shortly before he was to be arrested by the
German police, Bohr escaped to Sweden, and then traveled to
London. He worked at the top-secret Los Alamos laboratory in
New Mexico, U.S., on the Manhattan Project. After the war Bohr
returned to Copenhagen, advocating the peaceful use of nuclear
energy. He died in Copenhagen in 1962.

The Bohr radius is a physical constant, approximately equal to the most probable distance between the proton and
electron in a hydrogen atom in its ground state. It is named after Niels Bohr, due to its role in the Bohr model of an
atom.

We shall use the next formula to calculate the value of electron radius that travel in first orbit around the nucleus of
Bohr`s hydrogen atom:

and where are:

Using the best experimental values for e,m and FSC gives:

Now, we shall use the another formula to calculate again the Bohr`s radius:

where the value of Bohr`s radius is:

10

Also we can use the next formula to calculate the value of Bohr`s radius:

where the value of Bohr`s radius is:

The 2008 Rasko Jovanovic recommended value is:

According to 2010 CODATA the Bohr radius has a value of 5.2917721092(17)10

11

m (i.e., approximately 53

pm or 0.53 angstroms).
In the Bohr model of the structure of an atom, put forward by Niels Bohr in 1913, electrons orbit a central nucleus.
The model says that the electrons orbit only at certain distances from the nucleus, depending on their energy. In the
simplest atom, hydrogen, a single electron orbits the nucleus and its smallest possible orbit, with lowest energy, has
an orbital radius almost equal to the Bohr radius. (It is not exactly the Bohr radius due to the reduced mass effect.
They differ by about 0.1%.)
Although the Bohr model is no longer in use, the Bohr radius remains very useful in atomic physics calculations, due
in part to its simple relationship with other fundamental constants. (This is why it is defined using the true electron
mass rather than the reduced mass, as mentioned above.) For example, it is the unit of length in atomic units.

11

Value electron mass - electron rest mass

In some experiments, the charge-to-mass ratio is the only quantity that can be measured directly. Often, the charge
can be inferred from theoretical considerations, so that the charge-to-mass ratio provides a way to calculate the
mass of a particle. The electron charge to mass quotient, e/m, is a quantity in experimental physics. It matters
because the electron mass m is difficult to measure directly, and is instead derived from measurements of the
fundamental charge e and e/m. It also has historical significance: Thomson's measurement of e/m convinced him that
cathode rays were particles, which we know as electrons.

The 2006 CODATA recommended value is: e/m = 1.758820150(44) C/kg.

In 1897 J. J. Thomson, an English physicist, conducted a series of experiments on cathode rays. As a result of his
experiments, Thomson was able to measure the charge to mass ratio of the electron; he could not however, measure
accurately the charge or mass independently. The measurement of the electron's charge independently was achieved
by Millikan by his famous experiment from 1909 and with Thomson's results also a value for the electron mass was
obtained.This experiment is called the oil-drop experiment and it was the first successful scientific attempt to detect
and measure the effect of an individual subatomic particle.

Robert Andrews Millikan was born on the 22nd of March, 1868, in

Morrison, Ill. (U.S.A.), as the second son of the Reverend Silas
Franklin Millikan and Mary Jane Andrews. As a scientist, Millikan
made numerous momentous discoveries, chiefly in the fields of
electricity, optics, and molecular physics. His earliest major
success was the accurate determination of the charge carried by
an electron, using the elegant "falling-drop method"; he also
proved that this quantity was a constant for all electrons, thus
demonstrating the atomic structure of electricity. Next, he
verified experimentally Einstein's all-important photoelectric
equation, and made the first direct photoelectric determination
of Planck's constant h (1912-1915).

He has been the recipient of the Comstock Prize of the National Academy of Sciences, of the Edison Medal of the
American Institute of Electrical Engineers, of the Hughes Medal of the Royal Society of Great Britain, and of the Nobel
Prize for Physics 1923.
He died on the 19th of December, 1953, in San Marino, California.

12

J. J. Thomson

13

Robert Andrews Millikan

14

We shall use the next formula to calculate the mass of the electron in Bohr`s atom:

and where are:

Using the best experimental values for r,R,h_bar and (the value of c is fixed by definition) gives:

Now, we shall use the another formula to calculate again the mass of the electron in Bohr`s atom:

where the value of fine structure constant is:

15

Using the best experimental values for r,R,h_bar and (the value of c is fixed by definition) gives the value electron
mass:

Electron mass ( electron rest mass ) is atomic fundamental physical constant used as atomic unit of mass, m = 9.109
382 15 (45) * 10-31 kg. (CODATA, 2006.)

The 2007 Rasko Jovanovic recommended value is:

16

Elementary charge and The Golden Section

The elementary charge, usually denoted as e, is the electric charge carried by a single proton, or equivalently, the
absolute value of the electric charge carried by a single electron. This elementary charge is a fundamental physical
constant. To avoid confusion over its sign, e is sometimes called the elementary positive charge. This charge has a
measured value of approximately 1.602176565(35)1019 coulombs. In the cgs system, e is 4.80320425(10)1010
statcoulombs.
In some natural unit systems, such as the system of atomic units, e functions as the unit of electric charge, that is e is
equal to 1 e in those unit systems. The use of elementary charge as a unit was promoted by George Johnstone Stoney
in 1874 for the first system of natural units, called Stoney units. Later, he proposed the name electron for this unit. At
the time, the particle we now call the electron was not yet discovered and the difference between the particle electron
and the unit of charge electron was still blurred. Later, the name electron was assigned to the particle and the unit of
charge e lost its name. However, the old unit of energy electronvolt reminds us that the elementary charge was once
called electron.
The magnitude of the elementary charge was first measured in Robert A. Millikan's noted oil drop experiment in 1909.
The electron is a fundamental subatomic particle that carries a negative electric charge. Together with atomic nuclei
(protons and neutrons), electrons make up atoms. The discovery that the electron was a subatomic particle was
made in 1897 by J.J. Thomson at the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University, while he was studying cathode
ray tubes.

On April 30, 1897, Thomson announced that cathode rays were

negatively charged particles which he called 'corpuscles.' He also
announced that they had a mass about 1000 times smaller than a
hydrogen atom, and he claimed that these corpuscles were the
things from which atoms were built up. Thomson's corpuscle
hypothesis was not generally accepted, even by British scientists,
until he spoke of it again in 1899. By this time, George Francis
FitzGerald (1851-1901), had suggested that Thomson's 'corpuscles'
making up the cathode ray were actually free electrons. In fact, this
suggestion was published as a commentary to the publication of
Thomson's April 30, 1897 lecture in which he first announced his
results. Thomson himself continued to use the term corpuscle until
1913.

Other people had measured the e/m ratio or suggested that the cathode rays were composed of particles, but
Thomson was the first to say that the cathode ray was a building block of the atom. It was a risky thing, but he was
proved right and for his courage he is remembered as the discoverer of the electron.

17

George Johnstone Stoney, 18261911

18

The connection between electron charge on one side and , The Golden section on the other, is highly amusing:

where phi is the value of the golden section and PI is Archimedes` constant:

and where are:

Using the best experimental values for r,R,h_bar and (the value of c is fixed by definition) gives:

Elementary charge: The CODATA 2006 recommended value :

19

Fine Structure Constant

The velocity of the first Bohr`s electron and the speed of light ratio is called The Fine Structure Constant.

The Sommerfeld Fine Structure Constant, was first shown by

Arnold Sommerfeld (1868-1951) in order to account for the
actual frequency of the spectral lines for the hydrogen atom
from the fundamental Bohr hydrogen atom equations.
Sommerfeld's theory had some early success in explaining
experimental observations but could not accommodate the
discovery of electron spin. Although the Dirac relativistic
theory of the electron introduced in 1928 solves the main
aspects of the problem of the hydrogen fine-structure, still
determines its size as in the Sommerfeld theory. The
standard definition of fine structure constant in terms of
other fundamantal physical constants are:

where e is the elementary charge, h is the Planck constant,

is the magnetic constant (permeability of vacuum).

20

Arnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld (5 December 1868 26 April 1951)

21

Also the fine structure constant is,

The fine structure square is the ratio of the Bohr`s electron frequency and the Compton`s electron frequency:

From the theory of Hydrogen atom we find for the fine structure constant this amusing relation:

Where R is Rydberg constant, and r(Bohr) is radius of the first Bohr`s electron. So, the velocity of the first Bohr`s
electron is

The frequency of this electron according to the theory of Hydrogen atom is

22

Compton and Heisenberg 1929, Chicago

23

The Bohr`s electron wavelength is

The Compton`s wavelength of electron is

From the Bohr`s fundamental relation

Where m is electron rest mass and h is Planck constant, we get famous De Broglie relation

Also we have another form of Bohr`s fundamental relation:

24

From which we have next relation for the fine structure constant

Where

Is Dirac`s constant.
Also, the fine-structure constant is defined as

Where e is electron`s elementary charge. The connection between the fine structure constant and the golden section
constant is

Where

phi is the golden section constant.As of 2007, the best determination of the value of the fine-structure constant is =
7.297352570(5)exp(-3) = 1/137.035999070(98). The standard error is enclosed in parentheses.

25

Planck constant and number PI

The German Max Planck (1858-1947) and Nobel Prize recipient in 1919,
had introduced his constant in 1900 in a formula explaining the light
radiation emitted from heated bodies. According to classical theory,
comparable amounts of light energy should be produced at all frequencies.
This is not only contrary to observation but also implies the absurd result
that the total energy radiated by a heated body should be infinite. Planck
postulated that energy can only be emitted or absorbed in discrete
amounts, which he called quanta (the Latin word for "how much"). The
energy quantum is related to the frequency of the light by a new
fundamental constant, h. When a body is heated, its radiant energy in a
particular frequency range is, according to classical theory, proportional to
the temperature of the body. With Planck's hypothesis, however, the
radiation can occur only in quantum amounts of energy. If the radiant
energy is less than the quantum of energy, the amount of light in that
frequency range will be reduced. Planck's formula correctly describes
radiation from heated bodies. Planck's constant has the dimensions of
action, which may be expressed as units of energy multiplied by time, units
of momentum multiplied by length, or units of angular momentum.

The connection between Planck constant on one side and , Archimedes` constant PI on the other, is highly amusing:

where

26

27

A closely-related quantity is the reduced Planck constant (also known as Dirac's constant and denoted ,
pronounced "h-bar").

Using the best experimental values for r,R,m and (the value of c is fixed by definition) gives:

The value of Dirac`s constant is:

Planck`s constant is:

The value of Planck`s constant is:

28

P.A.Dirac and Richard Feynman

29

The fine structure constant is:

Using the best experimental value for Rydberg constant , gives:

We have this value of the fine structure constant:

30

Electron cloud

31

32