Lamb shift

noun

1. the small difference in energy between two states of the hydrogen atom detected by Willis Eugene Lamb (1913–2008), the US physicist

Example Sentences

Similarly, interaction between vacuum fluctuations and the electron in a hydrogen atom, produces an energy difference between the 2S1/2 and 2P1/2 states of the electron, and yielding the Lamb shift between their energy levels.

From Scientific American

This energy gap, known as the Lamb shift, exists in both hydrogen and antihydrogen.

From Nature

In the current work, the authors combined this result with their measurement of the 1S–2P1/2 energy difference to provide an estimate of the Lamb shift in antihydrogen.

From Nature

For example, a measurement of the Lamb shift with an uncertainty of less than one part in 104 would allow the antiproton charge radius to be determined12.

From Nature

Attributed to the existence of virtual particles being emitted and reabsorbed in a vacuum, the Lamb shift’s discovery contributed to myriad major developments in quantum theory.

From Scientific American