Stark–Lo Surdo effect
Efecto Stark-Lo Surdo
- Date
- 1913 · confidence high
- Place
- Aachen, Germany
- Credited to
- Johannes Stark, independently discovered by Antonino Lo Surdo
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
Measuring excited states of the hydrogen atom, Stark observed that an external electric field splits its spectral lines, just as a magnetic field does in the Zeeman effect; Italian physicist Antonino Lo Surdo reached the same result that same year, which is why in Italy it is called the Stark–Lo Surdo effect.
A case of simultaneous, independent discovery: Stark received international recognition and the Nobel Prize, but Italy also recognizes Lo Surdo's priority with the dual name.
What it led to
- Early experimental confirmation of atomic quantization, key to quantum mechanics
- Stark's 1919 Nobel Prize in Physics