[′lȯr‚ens ′līn ‚splid·iŋ ‚thē·ə·rē] (atomic physics) A theory predicting that when a light source is placed in a strong magnetic field, its spectral lines are each split into three components, one of them retaining the zero-field frequency, and the other two shifted upward and downward in frequency by the Larmor frequency (the normal Zeeman effect).