Shooting for the stars: The spherically confined H-atom redux
M. L. Glasser, Danielle Bousquet
We study an isolated hydrogen atom in its ground state contained within a spherical shell. We show that by using a mathematical package and a simple shooting process, we can find accurate values of various properties of the hydrogen atom, including the energy eigenvalues and the pressure dependence of the radius of the atom. We also introduce a parameter that allows us to make the shell penetrable. The procedure is simple enough to form the basis for a classroom or homework problem.
American Journal of Physics•May 12, 2003•7 citations