Variational Methods

The variational technique represents a completely different way of getting approximate energies and wave functions for quantum mechanical systems. It is most frequently used to compute the ground state, but can be extended to compute the low lying excited states. The technique involves guessing a reasonable, parametric form for a trial ground state wave function.

Variational Technique Example

Perturbation versus Variation

The Helium Ground State

The H+ 2 Molecule

Important Points



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https://courses.physics.illinois.edu/phys485/fa2015/web/variational.pdf