%0 Journal Article
%T Wien peaks and the Lambert W function
%A Stewart
%A Se¨¢n M.
%J Revista Brasileira de Ensino de F¨ªsica
%D 2011
%I Scientific Electronic Library Online
%R 10.1590/S1806-11172011000300008
%X exact expressions for the wavelengths where maxima occur in the spectral distribution curves of blackbody radiation for a number of diferent dispersion rules are given in terms of the lambert w function. these dispersion rule dependent "wien peaks" are compared to those wavelengths obtained in a setting independent of the dispersion rule chosen where the "peak" wavelengths are taken to be those obtained on dividing the total radiation intensity emitted from a blackbody into a given percentile. the account provides a simple yet accessible example of the growing applicability of the lambert w function in physics.
%K blackbody radiation
%K wien peaks
%K lambert w function
%K polylogarithm.
%U http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S1806-11172011000300008&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en