Hydrogen-Like Continuum Eigenstates
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The positive-energy continuum states of a hydrogen-like system are described by the eigenfunctions with corresponding eigenvalues
, (
).
are the same spherical harmonics that occur for the bound states. In atomic units
, the radial equation can be written
. The solutions with the appropriate analytic and boundary conditions have the form
. These functions are deltafunction-normalized, such that
.
They have the same functional forms (apart from normalization
constants) as the discrete eigenfunctions under the substitution
.
Contributed by: S. M. Blinder (March 2011)
Open content licensed under CC BY-NC-SA
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Reference: H. A. Bethe and E. E. Salpeter, Quantum Mechanics of One- and Two-Electron Atoms, New York: Academic Press, 1957, pp. 21–25.
Permanent Citation
https://demonstrations.wolfram.com/HydrogenLikeContinuumEigenstates/
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