My understanding is exchange splitting, Exc, comes from the overlap of the wavefunctions of identical (fermions)bosons that have to be (anti)symmetric upon particle exchange and explains Hunds' Rules. While fine splitting, Ef, comes from spin-orbit coupling (which comes from relativity) and hyperfine splitting, Ehf, comes from nulcear-electron spin coupling.
My question is, in terms of importance / magnitude, can I say
Exc > Ef > Ehf
and why or why not?
I know Ef > Ehf, but I'm not sure where to place Ex.
Everything you said is true and I find your doubts completely reasonable. The exchange interaction, when present, is in general the most important. The reason is that its energy scale is set by the Coulomb interaction. The Pauli principle defines whereas the electrons are close or not, and this is reflected in a increase of the Coulomb potential, the spin-orbit coupling is a perturbation compared to this one, and the hyperfine correction as you say, depends on the nuclear-electron spin coupling which is a lot more smaller.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Elementary Particle Physics
- Particle