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Willis Lamb Created 2026-10-24 Updated 2026-11-05
Willis Lamb and Robert Curtis Retherford measured a small separation between hydrogen energy levels that the simplest relativistic quantum mechanics placed at equal energy. Their 1947 experiment used microwave transitions involving metastable atoms, rather than trying to resolve the separation in an ordinary optical line. The Lamb shift required improved quantum electrodynamics, including the interaction of an electron with the quantized electromagnetic field. A small spectral discrepancy thereby became a quantitative test of the theory.[ref]
Fine Structure of the Hydrogen Atom by a Microwave Method by Willis Eugene Lamb Jr. and Robert Curtis Retherford. 1947 microwave experiment and measured separation of hydrogen levels
A physicist.[ref]
https://lib.arizona.edu/special-collections/collections/willis-e-lamb-jr-papers. Independent professional profile
[ref]https://optics.arizona.edu/person/willis-lamb-jr. Independent professional profile
Portrait of Willis Lamb
. Nobel foundation; 1955. Public domain in Sweden (PD-Sweden photograph). Source usage terms, via Wikimedia Commons. Source.