Extension of the Irregular Doublet Law

Abstract

RECENT work in this laboratory has shown that the irregular doublet law, first discovered in 1920 by G. Hertz in the X-ray region, and since then extended by Millikan and Bowen for the optical region, is capable of much wider application. Millikan and Bowen have applied the law for the prediction and identification of spectra of atoms which are stripped to one or two valency electrons by vacuum discharge, and in the case of higher valence elements, for inner transition lines. But the law can be applied for the prediction of spectra of elements with a larger number of valency electrons giving rise to complicated spectra. The extension of the law in its most general form can be thus enunciated: