Find the lowest bound on the ground state of hydrogen you can get using a Gaussian trial wave function

ψ(r)=Ae-br2,

where A is determined by normalization and b is an adjustable parameter. Answer-11.5eV

Short Answer

Expert verified

The lowest bound on the ground state of hydrogen using Gaussian trial wave function isHmin=-11.5eV.

Step by step solution

01

Step 1: Gaussian trail wave function

A Gaussian function is proposed as a trial wave function in a variational calculation on the hydrogen atom. Determine the optimum value of the parameter and the ground state energy of the hydrogen atom. Use atomic units

h=2ττ,me=1,e=1

ϕ(r,β):=(2βπ)34exp(-βr2)

Thegiventrial wave function is of the form:

ψ(r)=Ae-br2

02

Finding the lowest bound on the ground state of hydrogen.

First, we find the normalization constant A:

ψ2(r)r2sinθdrdϕ=1A20e-2br2r2dr0xsinθdθ02xdϕ=1A2182π(b)3(2)(2π)=1A=2bπ3/4

V=-e24π0˙0A24π0e-2br21rr2dr=-e24π0˙02bπ3/24π14b=-e24π0˙022bπ.

03

Step 3: Finding the value of T

Now we find <T>

T=-h22mA2e-br22e-br2r2sinθdrdθdϕBut2e-br2=1r2ddrr2ddre-br2=1r2ddr-2br3e-br2=-2br2(3r2-2br4)e-br2=-h22mπb42bπ3/24π(-2b)0(3r2-2br4)e-2br2dr=h2mπb42bπ3/2318bπ2b-2b332b2π2b.=h2m4πb2bπ38b-316b=3h2b2m.

04

Step 4: Finding the value of H

The last two calculations of the results to get <H>

H=3h2b2m-e24πo˙022bπ;Hb=3h22m-e24πo˙02π1b=0b=e24πo˙02π2m3h2.Hmin=3h22me24πo˙022π4m29h2-e24πo˙022πe24πo˙02π2m3h2=e24πo˙02mh243π-83π.=-m2h2e24πo˙0283π=83πE1=-11.5eV.

Thus the lowest bound on the ground state of hydrogen using Gaussian trial wave function isHmin=-11.5eV.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

As an explicit example of the method developed inProblem 7.15, consider an electron at rest in a uniform magnetic field B=B2kfor which the Hamiltonian is (Equation 4.158):

H=-γB (4.158).

H0=eBzmSz (7.57).

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(a) Prove the following corollary to the variational principle: If ψψgs=0thenáHñEfe whereEfe is the energy of the first excited state. Comment: If we can find a trial function that is orthogonal to the exact ground state, we can get an upper bound on the first excited state. In general, it's difficult to be sure that is orthogonal toψgsi since (presumably) we don't know the latter. However, if the potentialV(x) is an even function of x, then the ground state is likewise even, and hence any odd trial function will automatically meet the condition for the corollary.

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