1,2-Bis(dimethylphosphino)ethane has the connectivity . Chelation through both phosphorus donors contributes four electrons in ionic electron counting.
18-electron rule 2026-10-20
The 18-electron rule is a useful closed-shell guideline for many low-valent transition-metal complexes, filling nine valence orbitals. It is not universal: many early-metal complexes have fewer electrons, while stable square-planar complexes are often 16-electron.
2001 isolated attosecond pulse experiment Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
The experiment involving Ferenc Krausz combined a subfemtosecond soft-X-ray pulse with a few-cycle visible electric field. Its delay-dependent krypton photoelectron spectra tested the field-controlled response. The reported pulse duration was attoseconds. Changing delay compared the emitted electron distributions at different reference phases; the spectral-width trace supplied a further duration-sensitive observable.[ref]
The distinction from RABBITT is the measurement regime and reconstruction, rather than merely calling one trace a clock. The attosecond streaking momentum map is a limiting model; a finite-duration wave packet requires a quantum transition calculation. Inferring an emission delay also requires separating the illuminating pulse's spectral phase from the target response. The measurement supports time-dependent photoionization in a specified model, with no unique classical electron trajectory inside an atomic orbital implied.
2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl Created 2026-10-13 Updated 2026-10-20
DPPH is a neutral organic radical used as a spin reference in electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), also called electron spin resonance (ESR). Its unpaired electron remains bound within the chemical species: “free radical” does not mean a freely moving electron. The DPPH electron spin resonance experiment makes its magnetic moment observable.
2,4-Diazadiboretidine 2026-10-20
A 2,4-Diazadiboretidine contains an alternating four-membered B–N–B–N ring. nitrogen lone pairs provide sigma-donor sites, while the ring can bind an electron-rich metal through a pi interaction involving both B and N.
Electron microscopy with optical correctors compensating selected lens aberrations. Multipole correctors can reduce spherical-aberration blur and permit finer probes or improved image transfer. Resolution still depends on chromatic effects, source properties, stability, specimen scattering and damage.
Acidic permanganate-iron balance Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-10-20
An increase in oxidation state records oxidation; a decrease records reduction. Thus raises the iron oxidation state by one, while lowers the manganese oxidation state from to . Five iron ions supply the five-electron inventory required per permanganate ion.
In an acidic chemical solution, the complete half-reactions are
First balance oxygen with four water molecules, then hydrogen with eight protons, and finally electric charge with five electrons. Multiply the iron half-reaction by five and add; the exchanged electrons cancel:
Both sides contain one manganese, four oxygen, eight hydrogen and five iron chemical atoms, with net electric charge . The notation represents the acidic aqueous proton inventory; it does not imply bare protons moving independently of water. These half-reactions and their sum are the acidic balance used in the documented permanganate-iron titration.[ref]
Figure 1.
Acidic permanganate-iron balance: five exchanged electrons and conserved chemical atom and electric charge inventories
. Original exact stoichiometry diagram. Matching five formal electron slots is a bookkeeping operation, not a picture of free electrons in the chemical solution. The lower table verifies the net chemical equation; its is the net electric charge number of the written reacting species, not the bulk chemical solution. Details.
The coefficients predict amounts consumed, not a collision of five ions or an elementary reaction. Bulk chemical solution also contains compensating counterions, which are omitted from this net chemical equation. The hydrogen and oxygen oxidation states are unchanged; balancing their inventories remains essential even though they do not account for the exchanged electrons.
Aerobic respiration Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-10-20
Aerobic respiration uses molecular oxygen as the final electron acceptor. For complete oxidation of glucose, the net material balance is
This records the overall conversion of glucose, molecular oxygen, carbon dioxide and water; it is not one enzyme-catalyzed step, and it omits the separate ATP accounting. For an original stoichiometry check, each side contains six carbon, twelve hydrogen and eighteen oxygen chemical atoms. If exactly of glucose undergoes this complete conversion, the equation requires of molecular oxygen and yields each of carbon dioxide and net water. This is an equation-based calculation, not an observed seed measurement.
The molecular oxygen is reduced to water, rather than being the source of the carbon dioxide's carbon. A formal redox electron balance, using acidic half-reaction notation, makes the roles explicit:
Adding and cancelling gives the net equation above. Both half-reactions conserve chemical atoms and electric charge. The electrons balance a net transfer; they are carried through cellular intermediates, rather than released as a pool of free electrons. The final respiratory reduction can be written . These equations are bookkeeping, not a tracing experiment that assigns every product oxygen chemical atom to its original molecule.[ref]
Aharonov-Bohm effect Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-10-20
The Aharonov-Bohm effect is the phase acquired when a charge encircles magnetic flux , even when the magnetic field vanishes along the charge's path.
In the magnetic Aharonov-Bohm effect, a coherent electron wave takes two routes around inaccessible magnetic flux. Recombination converts their relative wave phase into displaced interference fringes. In 1959, Yakir Aharonov and David Bohm proposed a shielded solenoid geometry and identified the obstruction to removing the magnetic vector potential throughout the accessible region.[ref]
Use International System of Units, electric charge , and magnetic minimal coupling . Let run from the same source to the same detector point . The oriented closed curve follows and then backwards. For a static magnetic vector potential, the magnetic contribution to the relative wave phase is
Here is the oriented magnetic flux through a spanning surface. Equal or calibrated nonmagnetic propagation phases are assumed. For an electron, , where is the elementary charge; reversing reverses the sign. The observable is the gauge-invariant holonomy , rather than a unique local value of the magnetic vector potential.
The accessible region is a multiply connected region: cannot contract to a point without entering the excluded flux region. Stokes theorem does not set the line integral to zero, because a spanning surface must cross that excluded region, where the magnetic field need not vanish. There is real magnetic flux in the apparatus; only the accessible paths are idealized as free of the magnetic field. The exterior of a finite straight solenoid also permits routes around its ends, so its exact topology and leakage differ from those of an infinite solenoid or an excluded solid torus.
An explicit model makes the obstruction visible. Outside an infinite flux tube of radius , choose cylindrical coordinates and
Its curl vanishes there, but a loop with winding number has . Locally ; the angular coordinate changes by on a circuit. For generic , that candidate gauge removal changes the wave function's single-valued boundary condition. On a simply connected region, a smooth static magnetic vector potential with zero curl instead has a globally defined scalar primitive and is a pure gauge potential. Thus local zero magnetic field and globally removable magnetic vector potential are different conditions.
For an original interference example, take mutually coherent scalar amplitudes with constant individual intensities and an imposed carrier phase , as in off-axis holography. Then
The interference fringe spacing is . An electron enclosing has , shifting maxima by for this orientation. Increasing the magnetic flux by changes by and restores the same pattern: the electron Aharonov-Bohm effect has magnetic flux quantum . This uses , the Planck constant. It does not require the source's magnetic flux to vary continuously during a single exposure.
For , , the extrema are , , and the interferometric visibility is . A fixed Aharonov-Bohm phase translates these fringes without changing their contrast. Averaging unresolved fluctuating phases can reduce the contrast; a darkened pattern alone cannot identify enclosed magnetic flux. These formulas assume coherence, indistinguishable alternatives and stable beam envelopes.
The appeal of the Aharonov-Bohm effect is that a local Lorentz force calculation along either ideal path misses information carried by their global arrangement. It gives a physical example of holonomy and supplies the encircling phase used in Chern--Simons flux attachment. This alone does not establish intrinsic topological order. The static comparison also matters: changing magnetic flux can induce an electric field, so a time-dependent experiment requires the scalar-potential contribution as well as the displayed spatial line integral.
Albert Einstein Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
A physicist whose work connects special relativity, general relativity, Brownian motion and the photoelectric effect. He worked at the Institute for Advanced Study from 1933 until his death in 1955.[ref]
In 1905, Albert Einstein used the photoelectric effect to explore quantized light, related Brownian motion to molecular agitation, formulated special relativity, and connected changes in mass and energy. These problems link visible measurements to otherwise inaccessible structure: emitted electron energies, suspended-particle displacements and comparisons of clocks.[ref]
The Millikan photoelectric experiment follows one of those predictions into the laboratory. Its stopping-voltage measurements test a quantitative relation; the experiment's apparatus, surface preparation and electrical corrections matter to that inference. The Einstein field equations and general relativity lead to a different set of tests involving gravity and spacetime.
The Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921 recognized his theoretical work, particularly the law of the photoelectric effect; the award was presented in 1922.[ref]
Figure 1.
Albert Einstein in 1947, Library of Congress portrait via Wikimedia Commons
. Source.
With a momentum-independent allowed nuclear matrix element, negligible nuclear recoil and negligible neutrino mass, the electron spectrum in natural units is , where . Transforming to an energy spectrum requires the Jacobian determinant .
Two equivalent electrons require an antisymmetric complete state. Orbital exchange has parity and the spin singlet is antisymmetric, giving allowed even. The terms are , and , with states, equal to . Hund ordering puts lowest for the less-than-half-filled configuration.
Allyl ligand 2026-10-20
An allyl ligand can bind as , donating four electrons in ionic electron counting. Protonation can release an alkene and make coordination sites available.
Alternating-current drift excursion Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
For sinusoidal current density and constant carrier density , the electron drift velocity is . Its displacement has amplitude and zero net change over a full cycle. The distance accumulated by this drift alone in one cycle is . With an RMS current, . This does not measure the much larger microscopic path due to Fermi velocity and electron-phonon scattering.
Amount of substance Created 2026-10-13 Updated 2026-10-20
Amount of substance measures a count of specified entities, such as chemical atoms, molecules, ions, or electrons, using the mole as its SI base unit. It differs from mass: equal amounts of substance of different chemical substances contain equal entity counts but generally have different masses. If entities are present, , where is the Avogadro constant. The specified entity matters: one mole of water molecules contains two moles of hydrogen chemical atoms. [ref]
Analogue-to-digital unit Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-20
An analogue-to-digital unit is a unit of a digitized photodetector output after electronic conversion. Its relation to collected electrons is set by the detector conversion gain; an additive electronic offset must be removed before interpreting a count as a light signal.
Anderson localization Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
Anderson localization is the confinement of electron wave functions, or other wave modes, by interference between repeated wave scattering paths in static disorder. A localized eigenstate occupies a limited region even in a much larger sample. Disorder can therefore suppress diffusion without absorbing the wave. In 1958, Philip Warren Anderson studied random site energies and intersite coupling, finding a regime without transport. His paper develops a theoretical model; it does not report an Anderson laboratory measurement.[ref]
The distinction from ordinary multiple scattering is the retention of wave phases: alternative paths contribute probability amplitudes before their squared modulus is taken. Adding path probabilities alone loses the cross terms responsible for interference. This makes Anderson localization useful as a warning about transport models: repeated deflections need not produce unlimited diffusion. It also connects electron transport with wave propagation in a random medium, although the detailed equations and experimental diagnostics differ between electrons, light and acoustic waves.
Philip Warren Anderson's 1977 lecture distinguishes localized magnetic moments from disorder-localized states. It credits Nevill Francis Mott with recognizing the significance of the mobility edge. A Mott insulator instead requires electron interactions and can exist without disorder.[ref]
John Hasbrouck Van Vleck developed quantum mechanics explanations of magnetic susceptibility, including its temperature dependence; this is a distinct contribution from Anderson localization.[ref]
Anderson positron track experiment Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
The Anderson positron track experiment identified a light positively charged particle, now called the Positron, by combining magnetic bending, loss of kinetic energy in lead, and particle range. Each observation answered a different question: bending constrained momentum, the lead supplied a direction of travel, and particle range tested the proposed mass.
Carl David Anderson's The Positive Electron (1933), pp. 491–493, describes the 1932 discovery in a vertical cloud chamber with a magnetic field. A lead plate separated two photographed track segments. The effective viewing depth was along the magnetic field, with transverse diameter: this restricted out-of-plane motion. The photographic readout supplied curvature on both sides. Comparisons with electron tracks under the same conditions constrained ionization; specific ionization was not directly measured for these events. He tested accidental alignment of unrelated tracks and rejected a reversed electron interpretation requiring an increase of kinetic energy in lead. Assuming unit electric charge, the mass bound was about twenty electron masses, rather than an exact mass determination. The paper credits Robert Andrews Millikan with the design and Seth Henry Neddermeyer with assistance.[ref]
Preparation used rapid piston expansion and a water–alcohol mixture in the cloud chamber; cooling permitted droplets to form along ionization trails. A camera photographed these droplets. Initially, expansions occurred at random, so many photographs contained no tracks. Later counter triggering improved the useful yield.[ref]
In The Production and Properties of Positrons, his 1936 lecture, Carl David Anderson describes the chamber inside an electromagnet and explains why the lead plate was decisive: after losing kinetic energy, a particle bent more sharply. He describes a proton hypothesis predicting only of particle range, against an observed path longer than . These are historical values from the lecture, not the stipulated example below. The point was the incompatibility of particle range with the momentum inferred from curvature, rather than positive electric charge alone.[ref]
Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measures the kinetic energy and emission angle of electrons removed from a solid by light. With photon energy , sample work function , and binding energy measured downwards from the Fermi level, . The measured parallel momentum is , modulo a surface reciprocal-lattice vector. Bright ridges reveal occupied electronic band structure; their slopes give the corresponding group velocity. Extracting a Fermi energy relative to a Dirac point requires a calibrated Fermi level, not merely an unlabelled image boundary.
Ring closure of a seven-carbon conjugated anion with eight pi electrons; thermal orbital-symmetry selection favors disrotatory motion.