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Viewpoint: A New Look at the Hydrogen Wave Function

Christopher Smeenk

Published May 20, 2013• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

A newly-developed “quantum microscope” uses photoionization and an electrostatic magnifying lens to directly observe the electron orbitals of an excited hydrogen atom.

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To describe the microscopic properties of matter, quantum mechanics uses wave functions, whose structure and time dependence is governed by the Schrödinger equation. In atoms the charge distributions described by the wave function are rarely observed. The hydrogen atom is unique, since it only has one electron and, in a dc electric field, the Stark Hamiltonian is exactly separable in terms of parabolic coordinates (η, ξ, φ). As a result, the microscopic wave function along the ξ coordinate that exists in the vicinity of the atom, and the projection of the continuum wave function measured at a macroscopic distance, share the same nodal structure. In this Letter, we report photoionization microscopy experiments where this nodal structure is directly observed. The experiments provide a validation of theoretical predictions that have been made over the last three decades.
With an aim at the abstract conception of wave functions for hydrogen atom in quantum mechanics,this paper suggests the radial distribution,angular distribution and spatial distribution function of hydrogen atom electronic cloud,and also,Matlab software is used to plot their corresponding distribution charts.The analytical results indicate that the distribution patterns of hydrogen atom electronic clouds are co-determined by the radial and angular probability distribution,and that the electronic cloud distribution density is so uneven that the orbit trace can be observed.Accordingly,this method can reveal the radial,angular and spatial probability distribution laws of hydrogen atom electronic clouds intuitionally,whereby a new thinking way for analyzing the abstract wave function visualization in quantum mechanics is provided in this paper.
Even after extensive research in Quantum Mechanics, we are still unable to visualize instant-to-instant motion of an electron in hydrogen atom. That is because in QM treatment, potential energy term has been mistakenly assumed to be time-independent instead of depending on the instant-to-instant varying position of the orbiting electron [1]. This has led to wrong and weird solutions for the electron motion in hydrogen atom. Before the advent of wave mechanics, Sommerfeld model of elliptical electron orbits was able to explain most features of hydrogen spectra, except for the features associated with electron spin and magnetic moment interactions. However, the Sommerfeld elliptical orbits were of kinematic origin and could not provide visualization of instant-to-instant dynamic motion of the orbiting electron. Contrary to the QM perspective, we find that central core of the electron behaves as a classical particle while its electrostatic field behaves as a wave phenomenon. As such an electron under Coulomb force moves strictly in accordance with Newtonian laws of motion. In this paper, we develop dynamic electron orbits in hydrogen atom by using energy and angular momentum conservation principle in central force field. We have shown that during photon emission, angular momentum of the orbiting electron is changed by ħ due to recoil action. This may be the origin of various quantization rules. During emission of a photon, elliptical orbit transitions are also computed and plotted. Orbit transition time is of the order of 10-16 seconds. We have extended this methodology to compute electron orbits in hydrogen molecular bond and computed the H2 bond energy.