An interaction between the orbital angular momentum and the spin angular momentum of an individual particle, such as an electron. For light atoms, spin–orbit coupling is small so that multiplets of many-electron atoms are described by Russell–Saunders coupling. For heavy atoms, spin–orbit coupling is large so that multiplets of many-electron atoms are described by j-j coupling. For medium-sized atoms the sizes of the energies associated with spin–orbit coupling are comparable to the sizes of energies associated with electrostatic repulsion between the electrons, the multiplets in this case being described as having intermediate coupling. Spin–orbit coupling is large in many nuclei, particularly heavy nuclei.