Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-advanced-quantum-physics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2016/paper-1/1/a/solution

The open shell contains one electron, so and . For a less-than-half-filled shell, Hund's rules select the smaller total angular momentum, , giving the free-ion ground level . The Landé g-factor is
In a magnetic field weak compared with the spin-orbit splitting, the electronic Zeeman shifts are , for . Thus six equally spaced magnetic substates appear. At , the adjacent-level spacing is
The complete lowest-to-highest multiplet spread is five spacings,
Giving both quantities removes the ambiguity in the word splitting. This is the free-ion, weak-field result; no crystal-field doublet or hyperfine structure is specified.

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