Majorana solutions to the two-electron problem

DOI10.1007/S10701-012-9685-1zbMATH Open1260.81328arXiv1207.1666OpenAlexW3102290020MaRDI QIDQ1936403FDOQ1936403

Authors: S. Esposito, Adele Naddeo 

Publication date: 4 February 2013

Published in: Foundations of Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: A review of the known different methods and results devised to study the two-electron atom problem, appeared in the early years of quantum mechanics, is given, with particular reference to the calculations of the ground state energy of helium. This is supplemented by several, unpublished results obtained around the same years by Ettore Majorana, which results did not convey in his published papers on the argument, and thus remained unknown until now. Particularly interesting, even for current research in atomic and nuclear physics, is a general variant of the variational method, developed by Majorana in order to take directly into account, already in the trial wavefunction, the action of the full Hamiltonian operator of a given quantum system. Moreover, notable calculations specialized to the study of the two-electron problem show the introduction of the remarkable concept of an effective nuclear charge different for the two electrons (thus generalizing previous known results), and an application of the perturbative method, where the atomic number Z was treated effectively as a continuous variable, contributions to the ground state energy of an atom with given Z coming also from any other Z. Instead, contributions relevant mainly for pedagogical reasons count simple broad range estimates of the helium ionization potential, obtained by suitable choices for the wavefunction, as well as a simple alternative to Hylleraas' method, which led Majorana to first order calculations comparable in accuracy with well-known order 11 results derived, in turn, by Hylleraas.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1207.1666

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zbMATH Keywords

variational methodhelium atomEttore Majoranatwo-electron problem

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

History of mathematics in the 20th century (01A60) Closed and approximate solutions to the Schrödinger, Dirac, Klein-Gordon and other equations of quantum mechanics (81Q05) Spinor and twistor methods applied to problems in quantum theory (81R25) Atomic physics (81V45) History of quantum theory (81-03) Covariant wave equations in quantum theory, relativistic quantum mechanics (81R20)

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• Ettore Majorana: Notes on theoretical physics
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• Majorana and the quasi-stationary states in nuclear physics

Cited In (3)

• The self-consistent field method in the Hartree approximation for some two-electron configurations
• Title not available (Why is that?)
• Majorana, Pauling and the quantum theory of the chemical bond

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