摘要
氢光谱精细结构实验在20世纪二三十年代的物理学发展中扮演过重要角色。高分辨率分光器是实验中的核心仪器,所用分光器的演变很大程度上反映实验如何发展。本文聚焦这一时期的这类实验,阐述分光器如何从以卢默-格尔克板和阶梯光栅为代表的旧仪器,演变为以法布里-佩罗干涉仪为代表的新仪器。20年代,实验者注意到新仪器能简化误差处理,尽管其最初测量精度不及旧仪器,但仍凭借这种优势被引入此类实验。30年代,改进使用方法后新仪器的测量精度显著提高,在与旧仪器的竞争中占据优势。与此同时,此类实验的部分研究问题发生变化。尽管旧仪器解决新问题的潜力不比新仪器差,但面对新问题,旧仪器未经竞争就被取代。在过往有关这段历史的研究中,这一时期的氢光谱精细结构实验常因结论分歧被认为处于混乱局面。作为互补性视角,本文以分光器演变为线索展现这类实验20年间发展的延续性,以围绕实验误差的知识积累来分析实验仪器演变背后的动力因素。
Experiments studying the fine-structure of hydrogen spectra played an important role in physics development in the 1920s-1930s.As core instruments,the evolution of high-resolution-power spectroscopes in use largely reflects how these experiments developed.Focusing on these ex-periments,we describe how spectroscopes evolved from old instruments-Lummer-Gehrcke plates and echelons--to new ones,the Fabry-Perot interferometers.In the 1920s,experimenters noticed that new instruments could simplify error handling and thus were introduced into these experiments,although their initial measurement accuracy was not as good as that of the old instruments.In the 1930s,a new method specifically designed for the new instruments significantly improved the measurement accuracy,winning the competition against the old ones.Meanwhile,some of the re-search concerns underlying such experiments changed.With these new concerns,the old instruments were replaced without further competition,even though the old ones were potentially as capable as the new ones in meeting theseconcerns.Previous narratives of this history have mainly focused on the controversies between the results or conclusions of concurrent experiments.As a complementary perspective,we take the evolution of the spectroscope as a clue to reveal the consistency and continu-ity of these experiments and analyze the driving factors behind the spectroscope's evolution by exami-ning the accumulation of knowledge of experimental errors.
作者
张思源
张柏春
ZHANG Siyuan;ZHANG Baichun(Institute for the History of Natural Sciences,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100190,China;Research Center for the History of Science and Technology,Nankai University,Tianjin 300350,China)
出处
《自然科学史研究》
北大核心
2025年第2期246-260,共15页
Studies in The History of Natural Sciences
基金
中国科学院战略研究专项:科学技术通史研究(项目编号:E4293S05ZY)。
关键词
氢光谱
精细结构
分光器
实验误差
Hydrogen spectra
fine-structure
spectroscope
experimental error
