.
There may be many other stationary states corresponding to other ways of forming the system. The assumption of the existence of such states seems necessary in order to account for the line-spectra of systems containing more than one electron ([p. 11]); it is also suggested by the theory of Nicholson mentioned on [p. 6], to which we shall return in a moment. The consideration of the spectra, however, gives, as far as I can see, no indication of the existence of stationary states in which all the electrons are arranged in a ring and which correspond to greater values for the total energy emitted than the one we above have assumed to be the permanent state.
Further, there may be stationary configurations of a system of
electrons and a nucleus of charge
in which all the electrons are not arranged in a single ring. The question, however, of the existence of such stationary configurations is not essential for our determination of the permanent state, as long as we assume that the electrons in this state of the system are arranged in a single ring. Systems corresponding to more complicated configurations will be discussed on [p. 24].
Using the relation
