written by Chandralekha Singh, Emily Marshman, and Christof Keebaugh

We discuss an investigation of student difficulties with the fine structure corrections to the energy spectrum of the hydrogen atom in the context of degenerate perturbation theory (DPT). The investigation was carried out in advanced quantum mechanics courses by administering free-response and multiple-choice questions and conducting individual interviews with students. We discuss the common student difficulties related to these concepts. These findings provide guidelines for creating learning tools to help students develop a functional understanding of concepts involving the fine structure corrections to the energy spectrum of a hydrogen atom.

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Last Modified February 26, 2018

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