Lamb shift

British

noun

the small difference in energy between two states of the hydrogen atom detected by Willis Eugene Lamb (1913–2008), the US physicist

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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Lamb shift

Their effects have been observed through well established phenomena such as the Lamb shift, spontaneous emission, and the Casimir effect.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 3, 2026

Inspired by Bethe’s quick calculation of this Lamb shift, Feynman developed techniques to solve that problem and beyond, to the widest range of quantum electrodynamic interactions between charged particles.

From Nature ● May 7, 2018

Their indirect effects can nonetheless be measured, and their existence has been confirmed by a small shift, called the Lamb shift, which they produce in the spectrum energy of light from excited hydrogen atoms.

From BBC ● Feb. 2, 2016

In other words, they’re measuring the Lamb shift.

From Scientific American ● Apr. 19, 2013

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023