Zeeman effect
Efecto Zeeman
- Date
- 1896 · confidence high
- Place
- Leiden, Netherlands
- Credited to
- Pieter Zeeman; Hendrik Lorentz
- People
- 👤 Pieter Zeeman1865–1943
- Field
- Communication
What was discovered
Spectral lines split in the presence of a magnetic field; Lorentz explains it with oscillating electrons and estimates their charge-to-mass ratio before Thomson. It links spectra, magnetism and atomic structure.
Nobel Prize shared with Lorentz in 1902; Faraday had attempted the experiment in 1862 without success.
What it led to
- Lorentz's electron theory
- Electron spin (anomalous Zeeman effect)
- Measurement of solar and stellar magnetic fields
- Magnetic resonance
Built on
- Faraday effect13 de septiembre de 1845
- Spectral analysis and Kirchhoff's law of radiation1859
- Kirchhoff's spectroscopy
- Electromagnetic theory
Made possible
- Stark–Lo Surdo effect1913
- Electron spin1925
- Solar magnetography
- High-resolution spectroscopy