氢是最简单的化学元素,由一个质子和一个电子组成。原子氢是宇宙空间中最多的元素,不过,那里漫无边际,平均密度为1个原子/米~3。地球上的氢也很多,但是,只在诸如水或双原子分子氢中以分子形式存在。普通教科书的观点是:原子氢不能作为中等密度的相对稳定(亚稳态)的气体而存在。我们阿姆斯特丹大学的研究小组不久前研制了一种获得稳态原子氢气体的工艺。已在几次实验中获得成功,为物理世界提供了一种陌生的新物质。早在上个世纪就知道的获得原子氢的一个方法是对氢气通电。电流使分子分解成中性原子并产生紫红色辉光放电。让光按波长而展开的分光光谱仪显示它由许多被叫做谱线的离散的颜色组成。解释单个氢原子光发射谱线遇到的困难曾导致1920年量子力学的发展,第二 Hydrogen is the simplest chemical element, composed of a proton and an electron. Atomic hydrogen is the most abundant element in space, but there is no limit to the average density of 1 atom / m ~ 3. There is also a lot of hydrogen on the planet, but it exists in molecular form only in hydrogen such as water or diatomic molecules. The general textbook view is that atomic hydrogen can not exist as a relatively dense (metastable) gas of medium density. Our Amsterdam University research team recently developed a steady-state atomic hydrogen gas process. Success has been achieved in several experiments, providing a new and stranger to the physical world. One way to get atomic hydrogen back in the last century is to power the hydrogen. The current breaks down the molecule into neutral atoms and produces a purple-red glow discharge. A spectrometer that lets light spread by wavelength shows that it consists of many discrete colors called spectral lines. The difficulties encountered in explaining the light emission spectrum of a single hydrogen atom have led to the development of quantum mechanics in 1920, and the second