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To escape the atom, the energy of the electron must be increased above its binding energy to the atom. This occurs, for example, with the photoelectric effect , where an incident photon exceeding the atom's ionization energy is absorbed by the electron.
The current theoretical model of the atom involves a dense nucleus surrounded by a probabilistic "cloud" of electrons. Atomic theory is the scientific theory that matter is composed of particles called atoms. The definition of the word "atom" has changed over the years in response to scientific discoveries.
Bohr–Sommerfeld theory is named after Danish physicist Niels Bohr and German physicist Arnold Sommerfeld. Sommerfeld showed that, if electronic orbits are elliptical instead of circular (as in Bohr's model of the atom), the fine-structure of the hydrogen atom can be described.
The one-electron universe postulate, proposed by theoretical physicist John Wheeler in a telephone call to Richard Feynman in the spring of 1940, is the hypothesis that all electrons and positrons are actually manifestations of a single entity moving backwards and forwards in time. According to Feynman:
The Bohr model of the hydrogen atom (Z = 1) or a hydrogen-like ion (Z > 1), where the negatively charged electron confined to an atomic shell encircles a small, positively charged atomic nucleus and where an electron jumps between orbits, is accompanied by an emitted or absorbed amount of electromagnetic energy (hν). [1]
In atomic physics and quantum chemistry, the electron configuration is the distribution of electrons of an atom or molecule (or other physical structure) in atomic or molecular orbitals. [1] For example, the electron configuration of the neon atom is 1s 2 2s 2 2p 6 , meaning that the 1s, 2s, and 2p subshells are occupied by two, two, and six ...
VSEPR theory is used to predict the arrangement of electron pairs around central atoms in molecules, especially simple and symmetric molecules. A central atom is defined in this theory as an atom which is bonded to two or more other atoms, while a terminal atom is bonded to only one other atom.
The energy of an electron is determined by its orbit around the atom, The n = 0 orbit, commonly referred to as the ground state, has the lowest energy of all states in the system. In atomic physics and chemistry , an atomic electron transition (also called an atomic transition, quantum jump, or quantum leap) is an electron changing from one ...