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Ubiquitousness and stability of atoms relies on their binding energy, which means that an atom has a lower energy than an unbound system of the nucleus and electrons. Where the temperature is much higher than ionization potential , the matter exists in the form of plasma —a gas of positively charged ions (possibly, bare nuclei) and electrons.
Atomic, molecular, and optical physics (AMO) is the study of matter–matter and light–matter interactions, at the scale of one or a few atoms [1] and energy scales around several electron volts. [2]: 1356 [3] The three areas are closely interrelated. AMO theory includes classical, semi-classical and quantum treatments.
A vacuum can be viewed not as empty space but as the combination of all zero-point fields. In quantum field theory this combination of fields is called the vacuum state, its associated zero-point energy is called the vacuum energy and the average energy value is called the vacuum expectation value (VEV) also called its condensate.
The energy necessary to remove an electron from its shell (taking it to infinity) is called the binding energy. Any quantity of energy absorbed by the electron in excess of this amount is converted to kinetic energy according to the conservation of energy. The atom is said to have undergone the process of ionization.
A decrease in energy level from E 2 to E 1 resulting in emission of a photon represented by the red squiggly arrow, and whose energy is h ν. Electrons in atoms and molecules can change (make transitions in) energy levels by emitting or absorbing a photon (of electromagnetic radiation), whose energy must be exactly equal to the energy ...
Because atoms and molecules are said to be matter, it is natural to phrase the definition as: "ordinary matter is anything that is made of the same things that atoms and molecules are made of". (However, notice that one also can make from these building blocks matter that is not atoms or molecules.) Then, because electrons are leptons, and ...
The term originated in 1903 when Ernest Rutherford began to speak of the possibility of atomic energy. [1] H. G. Wells popularized the phrase "splitting the atom", [citation needed] before discovery of the atomic nucleus. Atomic energy includes: Nuclear binding energy, the energy required to split a nucleus of an atom.
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]