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American Journal of Physics

Factorization of the Radial Equation for the Hydrogen Atom

Zevi W. Salsburg

Published Jan 1, 1965• 10 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The radial equation for the hydrogen atom problem is factored to yield raising and lowering operators for the oribtal angular momentum quantum number l. This procedure, which is a direct analog for the usual treatment of the angular momentum operators, is considered to offer many pedagogical advantages for an introductory course in quantum mechanics over the usual series method of solution. The raising process is terminated by establishing the existence of an upper bound for l. The use of the hypervirial relations is advocated for displaying such an a priori upper bound.

DOI
10.1119/1.1971225

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The radial equation for the hydrogen atom problem is factored to yield raising and lowering operators for the oribtal angular momentum quantum number l. This procedure, which is a direct analog for the usual treatment of the angular momentum operators, is considered to offer many pedagogical advantages for an introductory course in quantum mechanics over the usual series method of solution. The raising process is terminated by establishing the existence of an upper bound for l. The use of the hypervirial relations is advocated for displaying such an a priori upper bound.
The radial form of Hylleraas’ equation for the hydrogen atom, Λl‖El〉=4ℏ4a−2‖El〉 (a=Bohr radius), is considered and it is shown that the operator Λl can be factorized. Hence ladder operators P±l are derived that are linear in the position operator r and are nonlinear functions of the momentum operator p. It is proven that P±l‖El〉 =2ℏ2a−1[1+(l+ (1)/(2) ± (1)/(2) )2 ×(2Mℏ−2a2E)]1/2‖E,l±1〉. In the momentum representation of wave mechanics the solutions to these equations are the radial momentum-space wavefunctions for the hydrogen atom. Thus a simple method of calculating these wavefunctions is obtained. The results complement the familiar operator solution for the hydrogen atom that is based on factorization of the radial Hamiltonian and yields operators that are linear in p and are nonlinear functions of r.
In this investigation a simple method developed by introducing spin to Schrodinger equation to study the relativistic hydrogen atom. By separating Schrodinger equation to radial and angular parts, we modify these parts to the associated Laguerre and Jacobi differential equations, respectively. Bound state Energy levels and wave functions of relativistic Schrodinger equation for Hydrogen atom have been obtained. Calculated results well matched to the results of Dirac’s relativistic theory. Finally the factorization method and supersymmetry approaches in quantum mechanics, give us some first order raising and lowering operators, which help us to obtain all quantum states and energy levels for different values of the quantum numbers n and m.
The purely algebraic technique associated with the creation and annihilation operators to resolve the radial equation of Hydrogen-like atoms (HLA) for generating the bound energy spectrum and the corresponding wave functions is suitable for many calculations in quantum physics. However, the analytical approach with series is extensively used based on wave mechanics theory in most of quantum textbooks. Indeed, much More complete than the old solution of Schrödinger's time-independent differential equation (TISE), one can simply earn all quantum information of a system by using the operational method. In addition to earlier two models, including the quantum harmonic oscillator and the total angular momentum, it can undoubtedly be a third fundamental model to solve Schrödinger's eigenvalue equation of the HLA systems in Hilbert space similar to the harmonic oscillator. We will illustrate how systematically making an appropriate groundwork to discover the coherent states can lead to providing the energy quantization and normalized radial wave functions attached to the matrix representation without additional assumptions.
The usual explicit expressions for spherical harmonics are derived by a method which does not involve the solution of differential equations or the use of angular momentum operators in spherical polar form. Instead a raising operator constructed from an arbitrary vector is used together with the usual angular momentum raising and lowering operators. The method is first presented as simply as possible in Schrödinger representation using position as the vector. Then it is generalized to an arbitrary vector and arbitrary integral angular momentum without using a particular representation. Finally it is shown how a conserved vector (other than angular momentum) of a central system can be used to reveal properties of the energy eigenstates. As an example, eigenstates of the hydrogen atom are found using the Runge-Lenz vector.