English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Based on classical electrodynamics, it is argued that the Coulomb potential(which is strictly valid for two point charges at rest), commonly used in thestudy of energy levels of hydrogen atom is not the correct one, because theelectron in the hydrogen atom moves with relativistic speeds with respect tothe nucleus. Retardation effect has to be considered in accordance withLi\'{e}nard-Wiechert (or retarded) potential of a moving charge or therelativistic electrodynamics. However, such a consideration introduces acorrection to the Coulomb potential, whose quantum mechanical expectation valueis estimated at $E_{ret} = - \frac{mc^2\alpha ^4}{2n^3(l+1/2)}$, which is ofthe same order as the fine structure of hydrogen atom and hence added to thestandard energy eigenvalue values of H-atom. This correction lifts the$l$-degeneracy in the spectra of H-atom and hence modifies the standard result.The result disturbs the existing agreement between the theory and experimentson H-atom and hence requires further theoretical and experimentalre-examination. The implications of this result for the Kepler-problem ingeneral is also discussed in the context of Heaviside's gravity, which seems tooffer an alternative explanation for the non-Newtonian perihelion advance ofMercury without invoking the space-time curvature formalism of Einstein'sgeneral theory of relativity.

Effect of a relativistic correction to the Coulomb potential on the energy levels of hydrogen atom