Asymptotics of natural and artificial atoms in strong magnetic fields

Abstract

Magnetic fields in terrestrial experiments have only tiny effects on the ground-state properties of conventional atoms. The reason is that the natural atomic unit for magnetic field strength, B0 = m2 e 3 c/h = 2.35 x 105 Tesla, is enormous compared with laboratory fields, which are seldom larger than 10 T. Here m denotes the electron mass, e the elementary charge, and h and c have their usual meaning. The unit B0 is the field strength B at which the magnetic length lb = (hc/(eB))1/2 (∼ cyclotron radius for an electron in the lowest Landau level) is equal to the Bohr radius a0 = h/(me2). Equivalently, at B = B0 the Landau energy hωB with ωb - eB/(mc) the cyclotron frequency, becomes equal to the Rydberg energy e2/a0. For B B0 distortions of ground-state wave functions and energy level shifts due to the magnetic field will therefore be small, and their standard treatment by means of perturbation theory is completely adequate. © 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York.