Metastability of Hydrogen and Helium Levels.

Abstract

The mean life of the 2S state of hydrogen in the absence of collisions is primarily determined by the simultaneous emission of two photons. Owing to this cause the mean life is `-*4 sec. It is expected that the mean life of is 2S `S of He i is of the same order of magnitude and is much shorter than that of is 2S 3S of He i. The non-adiabatic collisions with electrons are found to be more important than the static effects at small electron densities, leading to a transition probability `-*-`~h sec ` for an electron temper- ature `-.--`io,ooo° C and an electron density 30 cm3. The effect of static electric fields on the 2S state of hydrogen is worked out in more detail than previously by taking into account the hyperfine structure. The mean life in static electric fields which are strong enough to make double emission of little importance and yet weak enough to give a mean life > io7 sec is found to be the sum of two lives: (i) the mean life calculated neglecting hyperfine structure and (2) the mean life calculated neglecting radiation coupling. In both (i) and (2) the mixing of 2~ into 2S by the Stark effect is taken into account. Radiations due to quadrupole and magnetic dipole effects are considered qualita- tively for is 2S 3S of helium and quantitatively for 2S of hydrogen. For the latter there exists a small radiative magnetic dipole effect on Dirac's theory of the electron which is absent in the ordinary spin model