Past exam of the short options paper shared by Prelims and Parts A and B of the physics course of the University of Oxford / 2016 / S3 / 3

A heated cathode emits electrons into low-pressure atomic vapor, and a variable accelerating voltage gives them kinetic energy. A grid and small retarding region precede the collecting anode. Below the first excitation threshold most collisions are elastic; above it, electrons can transfer a definite excitation energy to atoms and may then fail to overcome the collector's retarding field. Collector current develops repeated minima as accelerating voltage increases, separated by roughly the same excitation voltage, approximately 4.9 V for mercury. Contact potentials and energy spreads shift or smear the minima without removing their characteristic spacing. A smooth loss mechanism would not produce these repeated fixed-energy thresholds.^[ref]

A classically accelerating Coulomb electron radiates and loses orbital energy, so a stable nonradiating orbit is impossible within that unmodified theory. Bohr instead postulates stationary nonradiating orbits, quantized angular momentum $\mu vr=n\hslash$ and photon emission/absorption with $h\nu =E_i-E_f$. Here $\mu =m_{e}M/(m_e+M)$ describes relative motion. The angular-momentum condition is the standing-wave relation $\boxed{2\pi r=n{\lambda }_{\mathrm{dB}}}$ for the relative orbit. These are additional quantum postulates, not consequences of classical radiation theory.

Coulomb centripetal balance and $\mu vr=n\hslash$ giveThe radius is the electron-nucleus separation. For positronium, $Z=1$ and $\mu =m_e/2$, so $r_n=2a_0{n}^2$ and $E_n=-\mathrm{Ry}/(2n^2)$. Each constituent's radius about the center of mass is half the separation; calling both that radius and $r_n$ the orbital radius without distinction would create another factor-two error.

The relative orbital speed is $Z{e}^2/(4\pi {ϵ}_0\hslash n)$. Divide the circumference by this speed to findPositronium has twice the hydrogen period at the same principal quantum number. The symbol $n$ here labels principal levels with $n=1$ the ground state; if “nth excited state” is read literally as excitation count, replace $n$ by $n+1$.

The Lyman-alpha gap is $3Z^2(\mu /m_e)\mathrm{Ry}/4$, giving $\lambda =4hc/[3Z^2(\mu /m_e)\mathrm{Ry}]$. For heavy lithium nucleus and $Z=3$, $\boxed{\lambda \simeq 13.5\mathrm{nm}}$. A specified lithium isotope would permit the small reduced-mass correction; no isotope is supplied.

Positronium has $Z=1$ and half the hydrogen reduced-mass energy scale, so $\boxed{\lambda \simeq 243\mathrm{nm}}$. The large contrast with lithium is mainly $Z^2$ Coulomb scaling, with an additional factor two from the moving positron's equal mass. It is not explained by a different photon propagation law.