Atomic physics : an exploration through problems and solutions

Title:

Personal Author:

Budker, Dmitry

Edition:

2nd ed.

Publication Information:

Oxford, ENK. ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2008.

Physical Description:

xx, 518 p. : ill. ; 26 cm.

ISBN:

9780199532421

9780199532414

General Note:

Previous ed.: 2004.

Subject Term:

Nuclear physics -- Textbooks

Nuclear physics -- Problems, exercises, etc.

Added Author:

Kimball, Derek F.

DeMille, David P.

This book provides a bridge between the basic principles of physics learned as an undergraduate and the skills and knowledge required for advanced study and research in the exciting field of atomic physics. The text is organized in a unique and versatile format --- as a collection of problems, hints, detailed solutions, and in-depth tutorials. This enables the reader to open the book at any page and get a solid introduction to subjects on the cutting edge of atomic physics, such as frequency comb metrology, tests of fundamental symmetries with atoms, atomic magnetometers, atom trapping and cooling, and Bose-Einstein condensates. The text also includes problems and tutorials on important basics that every practicing atomic physicist should know, but approached from the perspective of experimentalists: formal calculations are avoided where possible in favor of 'back-of-the-envelope' estimates, symmetry arguments, and physical analogies. The 2nd edition contains over 10 new problems, and includes important updates, revisions, and corrections of several problems of the 1st edition.

Author Notes

Dmitry Budker Department of Physics University of California at Berkeley Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley (1993), American Physical Society Award for Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Research in Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics (1994), National Science Foundation Career Award (1998), Miller Research Professorship (2002-2003), Elected Fellow of the American Physical Society (2005), R&D 100 Award for Laser Detected Magnetic-Resonance Imaging (2007).Derek F. Kimball Department of Physics California State University - East Bay Ph. D. from the University of California at Berkeley (2005), Departmental Citation in Physics, University of California at Berkeley (1998).David P. DeMille Physics Department Yale University Ph. D. from the University of California at Berkeley (1994), Elected Fellow of the American Physical Society (2005), Francis M. Pipkin Award (2007).

Reviews 1

Choice Review

Formal education in physics at both undergraduate and graduate levels requires assimilation of material in structured, self-contained courses with only occasional references to outside materials. This is, of course, a matter of necessity, but it is also a limiting aspect of formal education. If the object of an education in physics is an awareness and understanding of the physical world, this approach falls short. The solution of problems, a natural result of seeking understanding of the physical world, requires an integration of information from a wide range of formal and informal sources. Budker and Kimball (Univ. of California, Berkeley) and DeMille (Yale Univ.) take up the solution of a variety of problems in atomic and molecular physics by using such an integrated approach. In the course of presenting solutions to close to 100 problems, materials from quantum mechanics, classical mechanics, and electrodynamics are used in an especially attractive and informative way. Appendixes contain practical information about units, atomic constants notation, and useful mathematics. Another book of this type, though more specialized and considerably older, is Problems in Quantum Mechanics, by I.I. Gol'dman and V.D. Krivchenkov (1961; reprinted 1993). Extensive bibliography; detailed index. A physics book that is a pleasure to read. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals. M. Coplan Institute for Physical Science and Technology

Preface to the Second Edition	p. xv
Preface to the First Edition	p. xvii
Notation	p. xix
1 Atomic structure	p. 1
1.1 Ground state of phosphorus	p. 1
1.2 Exchange interaction	p. 7
1.3 Spin-orbit interaction	p. 10
1.4 Hyperfine structure and Zeeman effect in hydrogen	p. 13
1.5 Hydrogenic ions	p. 18
1.6 Geonium	p. 21
1.7 The Thomas-Fermi model (T)	p. 30
1.8 Electrons in a shell	p. 33
1.9 Isotope shifts and the King plot	p. 37
1.10 Crude model of a negative ion	p. 41
1.11 Hyperfine-interaction-induced mixing of states of different J	p. 42
1.12 Electron density inside the nucleus (T)	p. 46
1.13 Parity nonconservation in atoms	p. 51
1.14 Parity nonconservation in anti-atoms	p. 61
1.15 The anapole moment (T)	p. 65
2 Atoms in external fields	p. 75
2.1 Electric polarizability of the hydrogen ground state	p. 75
2.2 Polarizabilities for highly excited atomic states	p. 78
2.3 Using Stark shifts to measure electric fields	p. 79
2.4 Larmor precession frequencies for alkali atoms	p. 81
2.5 Magnetic field inside a magnetized sphere	p. 84
2.6 Classical model of magnetic resonance	p. 85
2.7 Energy level shifts due to oscillating fields (T)	p. 90
2.8 Spin relaxation due to magnetic field inhomogeneity	p. 102
2.9 The E x v effect in vapor cells	p. 107
2.10 Field ionization of hydrogenic ions	p. 110
2.11 Electric-field shifts of magnetically split Zeeman sublevels	p. 110
2.12 Geometric (Berry's) phase	p. 112
2.13 Nuclear dipole-dipole relaxation	p. 116
2.14 Magnetic spin precession of a free magnet	p. 118
3 Interaction of atoms with light	p. 121
3.1 Two-level system under periodic perturbation (T)	p. 121
3.2 Quantization of the electromagnetic field (T)	p. 128
3.3 Emission of light by atoms (T)	p. 134
3.4 Absorption of light by atoms	p. 144
3.5 Resonant absorption cross-section	p. 147
3.6 Absorption cross-section for a Doppler-broadened line	p. 149
3.7 Saturation parameters (T)	p. 151
3.8 Angular distribution and polarization of atomic fluorescence	p. 158
3.9 Change in absorption due to optical pumping	p. 162
3.10 Optical pumping and the density matrix	p. 168
3.11 Cascade decay	p. 172
3.12 Coherent laser excitation	p. 175
3.13 Transit-time broadening	p. 176
3.14 A quiz on fluorescence and light scattering	p. 179
3.15 Two-photon transition probability	p. 183
3.16 Vanishing Raman scattering	p. 185
3.17 Excitation of atoms by off-resonant laser pulses	p. 187
3.18 Hyperfine-interaction-induced magnetic dipole (M1) transitions	p. 190
3.19 Transitions with unresolved hyperfine structure	p. 193
3.20 Optical pumping and quantum beats in Mercury	p. 195
3.21 Thomson scattering	p. 199
3.22 Classical model for a magnetic-dipole transition	p. 201
3.23 Nonlinear three-wave mixing in isotropic chiral media	p. 204
3.24 A negatively refracting atomic vapor?	p. 207
3.25 Light propagation in anisotropic crystals	p. 212
3.26 Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT)	p. 215
4 Interaction of light with atoms in external fields	p. 223
4.1 Resonant Faraday rotation	p. 223
4.2 Kerr effect in an atomic medium	p. 227
4.3 The Hanle effect	p. 233
4.4 Electric-field-induced decay of the hydrogen 2 [superscript 2]S[subscript 1/2] state	p. 236
4.5 Stark-induced transitions (T)	p. 238
4.6 Magnetic deflection of light	p. 244
4.7 Classical model of an optical-pumping magnetometer	p. 249
4.8 Searches for permanent electric dipole moments (T)	p. 253
4.9 Sensitivity to electric dipole moments	p. 264
4.10 Absorption, dispersion, optical rotation, and induced ellipticity	p. 267
4.11 Optical rotation in a gas of polarized neutrons	p. 270
5 Atomic collisions	p. 273
5.1 Collisions in a buffer gas	p. 273
5.2 Spectral line broadening due to phase diffusion	p. 274
5.3 Dicke narrowing	p. 277
5.4 Basic concepts in spin exchange	p. 281
5.5 The spin-temperature limit	p. 285
5.6 Electron-randomization collisions	p. 287
5.7 Larmor precession under conditions of rapid spin exchange	p. 288
5.8 Penning ionization of metastable helium atoms	p. 290
6 Cold atoms	p. 295
6.1 Laser cooling: basic ideas (T)	p. 295
6.2 Magneto-optical traps	p. 302
6.3 Zeeman slower	p. 306
6.4 Bose-Einstein condensation (T)	p. 311
6.5 Bose-Einstein condensation from an optical lattice	p. 322
6.6 Cavity cooling	p. 324
6.7 Cavity cooling for many particles: stochastic cooling	p. 329
6.8 Fermi energy for a harmonic trap	p. 331
7 Molecules	p. 335
7.1 Amplitude of molecular vibrations	p. 335
7.2 Vibrational constants for the Morse potential	p. 336
7.3 Centrifugal distortion	p. 338
7.4 Relative densities of atoms and molecules in a vapor	p. 341
7.5 Isotope shifts in molecular transitions	p. 346
7.6 Electric dipole moments of polar molecules	p. 351
7.7 Scalar coupling of nuclear spins in molecules	p. 355
7.8 Zeeman effect in diatomic molecules	p. 359
7.9 Omega-type doubling	p. 363
8 Experimental methods	p. 367
8.1 Reflection of light from a moving mirror	p. 367
8.2 Laser heating of a small particle	p. 369
8.3 Spectrum of frequency-modulated light	p. 372
8.4 Frequency doubling of modulated light	p. 374
8.5 Ring-down of a detuned cavity	p. 376
8.6 Transmission through a light guide	p. 377
8.7 Quantum fluctuations in light fields	p. 378
8.8 Noise of a beamsplitter	p. 382
8.9 Photon shot noise in polarimetry	p. 384
8.10 Light-polarization control with a variable retarder	p. 386
8.11 Pile-up in photon counting	p. 390
8.12 Photons per mode in a laser beam	p. 391
8.13 Tuning dye lasers	p. 392
8.14 Matter-wave vs. optical Sagnac gyroscopes	p. 395
8.15 Femtosecond laser pulses and frequency combs	p. 398
8.16 Magnetic field fluctuations due to random thermal currents	p. 403
8.17 Photodiodes and circuits (T)	p. 406
9 Miscellaneous topics	p. 415
9.1 Precession of a compass needle?	p. 415
9.2 Ultracold neutron polarizer	p. 417
9.3 Exponentially growing/decaying harmonic field	p. 418
9.4 The magic angle	p. 420
9.5 Understanding a Clebsch-Gordan coefficient selection rule	p. 426
9.6 The Kapitsa pendulum	p. 428
9.7 Visualization of atomic polarization	p. 431
9.8 Estimate of elasticity and tensile strength of materials	p. 438
9.9 The Casimir force	p. 440
A Units, conversion factors, and typical values	p. 443
B Reference data for hydrogen and alkali atoms	p. 449
C Spectroscopic notation for atoms and diatomic molecules	p. 451
D Description of polarization states of light	p. 455
D.1 The Stokes parameters	p. 455
D.2 The Jones calculus	p. 456
E Euler angles and rotation matrices	p. 459
F The Wigner-Eckart theorem and irreducible tensors	p. 461
F.1 Wigner-Eckart theorem	p. 461
F.2 Irreducible tensors	p. 467
G The density matrix	p. 469
G.1 Connection between the density matrix and the wavefunction	p. 469
G.2 Ensemble-averaged density matrix	p. 472
G.3 Time evolution of the density matrix: the Liouville equation	p. 474
G.4 Atomic polarization moments	p. 476
H Elements of the Feynman diagram technique	p. 481
I The 3-J and 6-J symbols	p. 485
I.1 3-J symbols	p. 485
I.2 6-J symbols	p. 488
Bibliography	p. 491
Index	p. 511

On Order

Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews 1

Choice Review

Table of Contents