Russell-Saunders coupling

Russell-Saunders coupling

[′rəs·əl ′sȯn·dərz ‚kəp·liŋ] (physics) A process for building many-electron single-particle eigenfunctions of orbital angular momentum and spin; the orbital functions are combined to make an eigenfunction of the total orbital angular momentum, the spin functions are combined to make an eigenfunction of the total spin angular momentum, and then the results are combined into eigenfunctions of the total angular momentum of the system. Also known as LS coupling.