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The term natural broadening refers to a type of line broadening (mechanism that creates width to spectral lines so they are not infinitely narrow) stemming from the quantum-mechanical phenomenon indicated by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, that no particle has both a fixed velocity and position, and there must be some variation in the photons emitted, even for identical electron orbital transitions within identical atoms. Natural broadening generally has a small effect on the line width compared to other broadening mechanisms, but can be recognizable by the scale and shape of its broadening effect, the shape termed a Lorentzian profile.