The Lamb Shift—Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Quantum field effects are magnified by collective interactions between many atoms. The study of the emission and absorption of radiation is the royal road that led Planck to quantum mechanics and Einstein to the concept of the photon. The experiment of Röhlsberger et al. (1) reported on page 1248 of this issue is another step along the way toward explaining changes in the spontaneous light emission from ensembles of emitters. These effects allow us to probe aspects of quantum electrodynamics (QED) in relatively low-energy nuclear experiments.

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