A new kind of test of the correspondence principle based on the prediction of the absolute intensities of spectral lines

Abstract

The correspondence principle postulates a relation between the average rate at which energy is actually being discontinuously emitted by quantum transitions and the continuous rate of emission which would be calculated on the basis of the classical theory. In the field of atomic and molecular behavior the principle has hitherto only been used to predict what spectral lines will not occur at all and to predict the relative intensities of spectral lines of similar origin.