Transitions with the same energy difference in the Bohr model of the hydrogen atom
Mathematical Physics
2026-05-29 v1 math.MP
Abstract
In the Bohr model of the hydrogen atom, the energy levels are a negative constant divided by the square of the level number. It is well known that special pairs of transitions exist that have the same energy difference, and a systematic treatment of this is given in the paper by Do and Phan (arXiv:2010.08338). In this paper we describe a simple method (using equal norms of Gaussian integers, and the Brahmagupta--Fibonacci identity) for finding all such pairs of transitions. We also analyze cascades of equal-frequency transitions, and use a theorem due to Fermat to show that cascades with more than three levels are not possible.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2605.29134,
title = {Transitions with the same energy difference in the Bohr model of the hydrogen atom},
author = {Matthias W. Reinsch},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.29134},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
16 pages, 3 figures