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PHYS261- Atomic Physics and  Physical Optics


Atomic physics Part PHYS261  -  main topic list
                  
- see also detailed  Overview of the course - both parts

INTRODUCTION - Quantum Mechanics and Hydrogen Atom

See also last year  -    ../2012_09_04/

Hydrogen atom - in all courses of Quantum Physics. This year - 100th anniversary
of Bohr's atom model - July 1913  - Old Quantum theory; Quantum mechanics 1926 to 1927

Proton and electron, interacting Coulomb interaction (not a "spring"... )
Coulomb Force - potential energy  GAUSSIAN SYSTEM OF ( units ) THINKING   (Length, Mass, Time; no current )
( i.e. no 4 pi epsilon zero !!! - see later )

Force  -  if integral over work changes independent of path - Potential energy depends on position
Newtonian mechanics with "conservative" forces - potential and kinetic energy
      01_Hydrogen_proton_electron_Force_potential.png

       01_Hydrogen_proton_electron_Force_potential.png

In the last lines we jumped from CLASSICAL MECHANICS   to  QUANTUM MECHANICS
---  defining the OPERATORS  -  what do they "operate" on - and how?


Operation on waves - starting with a PLANE WAVE
Note that UNLIKE in optics, Maxwell waves, acoustics etc where waves are taken as REAL PART of the complex exponential

IN QUANTUM MECHANICS GENERALLY THE WAVE MUST BE COMPLEX (in some cases some parts become real functions,
but in the full formulation - as outlined below - the COMPLEX values are essential!!

We thus start - as probably in history Schrödinger did - by looking at free particle, no potential - and
start playing with a plane wave.

How can we "operate" - to get the momentum p - this already proposed by Louis de Broglie in 1923 (3 years before Schrödinger)
      02_operator_wave_plane_wave_kinetic_energy.png

       02_operator_wave_plane_wave_kinetic_energy.png
In the above picture we have worked out the OPERATOR of kinetic energy and we are ready to discuss
time dependent Schrödinger equation in the next picture below.
For the hydrogen atom - and for all bound state cases - we solve the TIME-INDEPENDENT Schrödinger equation
Here is a illustration from our little program - we shall come lator to the separation of time

When solving for the bound motion - the solution, which provides PROBABILITY DENSITY - must be
finite everywhere  - or at least be integrable over the whole space - the integrated probability density
- i.e. the probability of being anywhere - must be ONE - 1.

http://web.ift.uib.no/AMOS/schroed/     (  or older version  http://web.ift.uib.no/AMOS/schroed/schroed_0.92.html   )

      03b_finding_solution_bound_Schroedingers_Toy_WWW.png

       03b_finding_solution_bound_Schroedingers_Toy_WWW.png

As we see - for most energy values the solutions blow up - run to infinity. Only for some energies
the solutions go to zero for asymptotic distances (positions) - and thus only those energies
are the physical solutions.

Bound states can only have those discrete values of energy - energy levels.


Here below we sketched the Schrödinger equation and the bound states story
TIME-independent form discussed below

      03_potential_well_bound_motion_free_motion_quantum_classical.png

       03_potential_well_bound_motion_free_motion_quantum_classical.png


TIME-independent  Schrödinger equation and the bound states story - and the preview of hydrogen atom results

The separation of time must be discussed - it will be done in the next lecture.

      04_bound_states_discrete_spectrum_E_nl_quant_numbers_ATOMIC_UNITS.png

       04_bound_states_discrete_spectrum_E_nl_quant_numbers_ATOMIC_UNITS.png


The separation of time must be discussed - it will be done in the next lecture.
We shall also discuss the ATOMIC UNITS and the Gaussian system
         ( Carl Friedrich Gauss 1777 – 1855 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Friedrich_Gauss )


See also ../2012_09_04/index.html


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