= Maria Goeppert Mayer
{c}
{tag=Physicist}
{wiki}
= M. G. Mayer
{c}
{synonym}
<Maria Goeppert Mayer> helped explain nuclear <magic numbers> using a <nuclear shell model> with strong <spin-orbit coupling>. Coupling a nucleon's <orbital angular momentum> $\ell$ and <spin> $1/2$ gives levels with $j=\ell\pm1/2$ and different energies. A large splitting changes the order and capacity of the shells, producing closures that a simple central potential alone fails to explain. For example, lowering the $j=7/2$ member of an $f$ level supplies eight states, accounting for the step from the closure at $20$ to the one at $28$.<On Closed Shells in Nuclei. II by Maria Goeppert Mayer>[1949 letter, spin–orbit splitting and shell closures]{ref}
A <physicist>.https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/discoveries-changed-world-meet-ucs-women-nobel-laureates[Independent professional profile]{ref}
\Image[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Redirect/file/Maria%20Goeppert-Mayer%20portrait.jpg?width=250]
{title=Portrait of <Maria Goeppert Mayer>}
{description=US Department of Energy / ENERGY.GOV, HD.3A.050; individual photographer unidentified. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maria_Goeppert-Mayer_portrait.jpg[Commons PD-USGov-DOE designation; ENERGY.GOV Flickr government-work status confirmed by review on 6 October 2014.], via Wikimedia Commons.}
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