Why does 2s have less energy than 1s if they have the same principal quantum number? by
Ciro Santilli 40 Updated 2025-07-16
The principal quantum number thing fully determining energy is only true for the hydrogen emission spectrum for which we can solve the Schrödinger equation explicitly.
For other atoms with more than one electron, the orbital names are just a very good approximation/perturbation, as we don't have an explicit solution. And the internal electrons do change energy levels.
Note however that due to the more complex effect of the Lamb shift from QED, there is actually a very small 2p/2s shift even in hydrogen.
This notation is so confusing! People often don't manage to explain the intuition behind it, why this is an useful notation. When you see Indian university entry exam level memorization classes about this, it makes you want to cry.
The key reason why term symbols matter are Hund's rules, which allow us to predict with some accuracy which electron configurations of those states has more energy than the other.
web.chem.ucsb.edu/~devries/chem218/Term%20symbols.pdf puts it well: electron configuration notation is not specific enough, as each such notation e.g. 1s2 2s2 2p2 contains several options of spins and z angular momentum. And those affect energy.
This is why those symbols are often used when talking about energy differences: they specify more precisely which levels you are talking about.
Basically, each term symbol appears to represent a group of possible electron configurations with a given quantum angular momentum.
We first fix the energy level by saying at which orbital each electron can be (hyperfine structure is ignored). It doesn't even have to be the ground state: we can make some electrons excited at will.
The best thing to learn this is likely to draw out all the possible configurations explicitly, and then understand what is the term symbol for each possible configuration, see e.g. term symbols for carbon ground state.
It also confusing how uppercase letters S, P and D are used, when they do not refer to orbitals s, p and d, but rather to states which have the same angular momentum as individual electrons in those states.
It is also very confusing how extremelly close it looks to spectroscopic notation!
The form of the term symbol is:
Atomic Term Symbols by TMP Chem (2015)
Source. Atomic Term Symbols by T. Daniel Crawford (2016)
Source. Bibliography:
- chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Physical_and_Theoretical_Chemistry_Textbook_Maps/Supplemental_Modules_(Physical_and_Theoretical_Chemistry)/Spectroscopy/Electronic_Spectroscopy/Spin-orbit_Coupling/Atomic_Term_Symbols
- chem.libretexts.org/Courses/Pacific_Union_College/Quantum_Chemistry/08%3A_Multielectron_Atoms/8.08%3A_Term_Symbols_Gives_a_Detailed_Description_of_an_Electron_Configuration The PDF origin: web.chem.ucsb.edu/~devries/chem218/Term%20symbols.pdf
- chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Inorganic_Chemistry/Inorganic_Coordination_Chemistry_(Landskron)/08%3A_Coordination_Chemistry_III_-_Electronic_Spectra/8.01%3A_Quantum_Numbers_of_Multielectron_Atoms
- physics.stackexchange.com/questions/8567/how-do-electron-configuration-microstates-map-to-term-symbols How do electron configuration microstates map to term symbols?
- 1982 www.pnas.org/doi/pdf/10.1073/pnas.80.6.1579 DNA fragments differing by single base-pair substitutions are separated in denaturing gradient gels by Fischer and Lerman (1982). It is possible then.
Can we make any ab initio predictions about it all?
A 2016 paper: aip.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1063/1.4948309
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