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European Journal of Physics

On the stability of the hydrogen atom

G.W. Sauer, W Kuhn

Published Jul 1, 1982• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

Reference to the solution of the Schrodinger equation does not give much physical insight into the problem of stability because it is far from obvious how the conclusion follows from the equation. The common arguments derived from the Heisenberg uncertainty principle are not sufficient to establish the existence of a stable ground state. The proof for a lower bound of the hydrogen hamiltonian may be recast into physical terms by introducing an effective localisation potential.

DOI
10.1088/0143-0807/3/3/006

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Reference to the solution of the Schrodinger equation does not give much physical insight into the problem of stability because it is far from obvious how the conclusion follows from the equation. The common arguments derived from the Heisenberg uncertainty principle are not sufficient to establish the existence of a stable ground state. The proof for a lower bound of the hydrogen hamiltonian may be recast into physical terms by introducing an effective localisation potential.
The Schrödinger equation is the cornerstone of quantum mechanics and is used to determine the energy levels of the hydrogen atom. However, in the teaching of Quantum Chemistry, many students tend to regard the solutions of the Schrödinger equation as purely mathematical results without fully understanding the physical origin of quantum energy levels. In this paper, an approximate model of the hydrogen atom is first developed based on the Heisenberg uncertainty principle and the Coulomb potential. This model is then used to derive the Bohr radius and the ground-state energy by minimizing the total energy function. Subsequently, the time-independent Schrödinger equation is formulated and solved by the method of separation of variables in spherical coordinates to obtain the exact energy spectrum of the hydrogen atom. The results demonstrate that both the approximate model and the exact solution predict the same ground-state energy, E1 = −13.6 eV, while the Schrödinger equation further generalizes this result to the quantized energy spectrum, En = −13.6/n2. These findings indicate that the solutions of the Schrödinger equation are not "miraculous" mathematical outcomes but rather the inevitable consequences of the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics. This approach provides a clearer physical interpretation of quantum energy levels and offers significant pedagogical value for the teaching of Quantum Chemistry.
In the scientific community dominates the conviction that the hydrogen atom is the simplest, and existing theories based on equations of Schrodinger and Dirac fully describe all the subtleties of behavior of an electron in a hydrogen atom. In this paper and in the following articles will be shown that in addition to the known state-based solutions of the Schrodinger and Dirac equations, there are states which were not studied and they were not known, or often simply were discarded with the phrase have no physical meaning. Further it will be shown that the existing equations of quantum mechanics, namely the Dirac equation, Klein-Gordon equation and especially the Schrodinger equation, can not accurately describe all the subtleties of behavior of an electron in a hydrogen atom. As a result there will be given a reasonable basis for the feasibility of an experimental search or targeted synthesis of new unknown states of the hydrogen atom.
Abstract In this chapter we consider the time-independent Schrödinger equation for three spatial dimensions. Making use of the orbital angular momentum observables, including the Laplacian in spherical polar coordinates, and introducing an effective potential, we recast the three-dimensional Schrödinger as a one-dimensional differential equation for the reduced radial wave function. In this context we discuss conditions for the existence of bound states and an upper bound on the ground-state energy obtained from the Rayleigh-Ritz variational principle. As an example we then consider the bound-state solutions for the spherical potential well and discuss the conditions for it admitting a ground state. We then turn to the Coulomb potential representing the hydrogen atom and discuss methods for obtaining upper and lower bounds on the ground-state energy to explain the stability of matter. Finally, obtain the Laguerre-polynomial solutions of the radial Schrödinger equation for the hydrogen atom, determine their energies and discuss their properties