Atomic and chemical physics

Millikan oil-drop experiment

1 of 2
Millikan oil-drop experimentBetween 1909 and 1910 the American physicist Robert
Millikan conducted a series of oil-drop experiments. By comparing applied electric
force with changes in the motion of the oil drops, he was able to determine the
electric charge on each drop. He found that all of the drops had charges that were
simple multiples of a single number, the fundamental charge of the electron.
Robert Millikan's method for measuring the charge of an electron2 of 2
Robert Millikan's method for measuring the charge of an electronMillikan oil-drop
experiment.
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One of the great achievements of the 20th century was the establishment of the
validity of the atomic hypothesis, first proposed in ancient times, that matter is
made up of relatively few kinds of small, identical parts—namely, atoms. However,
unlike the indivisible atom of Democritus and other ancients, the atom, as it is
conceived today, can be separated into constituent electrons and nucleus. Atoms
combine to form molecules, whose structure is studied by chemistry and physical
chemistry; they also form other types of compounds, such as crystals, studied in
the field of condensed-matter physics. Such disciplines study the most important
attributes of matter (not excluding biologic matter) that are encountered in normal
experience—namely, those that depend almost entirely on the outer parts of the
electronic structure of atoms. Only the mass of the atomic nucleus and its charge,
which is equal to the total charge of the electrons in the neutral atom, affect the
chemical and physical properties of matter.

Although there are some analogies between the solar system and the atom due to the
fact that the strengths of gravitational and electrostatic forces both fall off as
the inverse square of the distance, the classical forms of electromagnetism and
mechanics fail when applied to tiny, rapidly moving atomic constituents. Atomic
structure is comprehensible only on the basis of quantum mechanics, and its finer
details require as well the use of quantum electrodynamics (QED).

Atomic properties are inferred mostly by the use of indirect experiments. Of

greatest importance has been spectroscopy, which is concerned with the measurement
and interpretation of the electromagnetic radiations either emitted or absorbed by
materials. These radiations have a distinctive character, which quantum mechanics
relates quantitatively to the structures that produce and absorb them. It is truly
remarkable that these structures are in principle, and often in practice, amenable
to precise calculation in terms of a few basic physical constants: the mass and
charge of the electron, the speed of light, and Planck’s constant (approximately
6.62606957 × 10−34 joule∙second), the fundamental constant of the quantum theory
named for the German physicist Max Planck.

Condensed-matter physics
transistor
transistor The first transistor, invented by American physicists John Bardeen,
Walter H. Brattain, and William B. Shockley.
This field, which treats the thermal, elastic, electrical, magnetic, and optical
properties of solid and liquid substances, grew at an explosive rate in the second
half of the 20th century and scored numerous important scientific and technical
achievements, including the transistor. Among solid materials, the greatest
theoretical advances have been in the study of crystalline materials whose simple
repetitive geometric arrays of atoms are multiple-particle systems that allow
treatment by quantum mechanics. Because the atoms in a solid are coordinated with
each other over large distances, the theory must go beyond that appropriate for
atoms and molecules. Thus conductors, such as metals, contain some so-called free
electrons, or valence electrons, which are responsible for the electrical and most
of the thermal conductivity of the material and which belong collectively to the
whole solid rather than to individual atoms. Semiconductors and insulators, either
crystalline or amorphous, are other materials studied in this field of physics.

Other aspects of condensed matter involve the properties of the ordinary liquid
state, of liquid crystals, and, at temperatures near absolute zero, of the so-
called quantum liquids. The latter exhibit a property known as superfluidity
(completely frictionless flow), which is an example of macroscopic quantum
phenomena. Such phenomena are also exemplified by superconductivity (completely
resistance-less flow of electricity), a low-temperature property of certain
metallic and ceramic materials. Besides their significance to technology,
macroscopic liquid and solid quantum states are important in astrophysical theories
of stellar structure in, for example, neutron stars.

Nuclear physics
particle tracks from the collision of an accelerated nucleus
particle tracks from the collision of an accelerated nucleus Particle tracks from
the collision of an accelerated nucleus of a niobium atom with another niobium
nucleus. The single line on the left is the track of the incoming projectile
nucleus, and the other tracks are fragments from the collision.
This branch of physics deals with the structure of the atomic nucleus and the
radiation from unstable nuclei. About 10,000 times smaller than the atom, the
constituent particles of the nucleus, protons and neutrons, attract one another so
strongly by the nuclear forces that nuclear energies are approximately 1,000,000
times larger than typical atomic energies. Quantum theory is needed for
understanding nuclear structure.

Like excited atoms, unstable radioactive nuclei (either naturally occurring or

artificially produced) can emit electromagnetic radiation. The energetic nuclear
photons are called gamma rays. Radioactive nuclei also emit other particles:
negative and positive electrons (beta rays), accompanied by neutrinos, and helium
nuclei (alpha rays).

A principal research tool of nuclear physics involves the use of beams of particles
(e.g., protons or electrons) directed as projectiles against nuclear targets.
Recoiling particles and any resultant nuclear fragments are detected, and their
directions and energies are analyzed to reveal details of nuclear structure and to
learn more about the strong force. A much weaker nuclear force, the so-called weak
interaction, is responsible for the emission of beta rays. Nuclear collision
experiments use beams of higher-energy particles, including those of unstable
particles called mesons produced by primary nuclear collisions in accelerators
dubbed meson factories. Exchange of mesons between protons and neutrons is directly
responsible for the strong force. (For the mechanism underlying mesons, see below
Fundamental forces and fields.)

In radioactivity and in collisions leading to nuclear breakup, the chemical

identity of the nuclear target is altered whenever there is a change in the nuclear
charge. In fission and fusion nuclear reactions in which unstable nuclei are,
respectively, split into smaller nuclei or amalgamated into larger ones, the energy
release far exceeds that of any chemical reaction.

Particle physics
protons, neutrons, pions, and other hadrons
protons, neutrons, pions, and other hadronsVery simplified illustrations of
protons, neutrons, pions, and other hadrons show that they are made of quarks
(yellow spheres) and antiquarks (green spheres), which are bound together by gluons
(bent ribbons).
One of the most significant branches of contemporary physics is the study of the
fundamental subatomic constituents of matter, the elementary particles. This field,
also called high-energy physics, emerged in the 1930s out of the developing
experimental areas of nuclear and cosmic-ray physics. Initially investigators
studied cosmic rays, the very-high-energy extraterrestrial radiations that fall
upon Earth and interact in the atmosphere (see below The methodology of physics).
However, after World War II, scientists gradually began using high-energy particle
accelerators to provide subatomic particles for study. Quantum field theory, a
generalization of QED to other types of force fields, is essential for the analysis
of high-energy physics. Subatomic particles cannot be visualized as tiny analogues
of ordinary material objects such as billiard balls, for they have properties that
appear contradictory from the classical viewpoint. That is to say, while they
possess charge, spin, mass, magnetism, and other complex characteristics, they are
nonetheless regarded as pointlike.

Babylonian mathematical tablet

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