Self-adjoint extensions for confined electrons: from a particle in a spherical cavity to the hydrogen atom in a sphere and on a cone

DOI10.1016/J.AOP.2012.06.006zbMATH Open1253.81161arXiv1204.3434OpenAlexW2044493594MaRDI QIDQ714004FDOQ714004

Authors: M. H. Al-Hashimi, U.-J. Wiese 

Publication date: 19 October 2012

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

Abstract: In a recent study of the self-adjoint extensions of the Hamiltonian of a particle confined to a finite region of space, in which we generalized the Heisenberg uncertainty relation to a finite volume, we encountered bound states localized at the wall of the cavity. In this paper, we study this situation in detail both for a free particle and for a hydrogen atom centered in a spherical cavity. For appropriate values of the self-adjoint extension parameter, the bound states lo calized at the wall resonate with the standard hydrogen bound states. We also examine the accidental symmetry generated by the Runge-Lenz vector, which is explicitly broken in a spherical cavity with general Robin boundary conditions. However, for specific radii of the confining sphere, a remnant of the accidental symmetry persists. The same is true for an electron moving on the surface of a finite circular cone, bound to its tip by a 1/r potential.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1204.3434

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zbMATH Keywords

Runge-Lenz vectorself-adjoint extensionsaccidental degeneracycavity resonance

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Closed and approximate solutions to the Schrödinger, Dirac, Klein-Gordon and other equations of quantum mechanics (81Q05) Selfadjoint operator theory in quantum theory, including spectral analysis (81Q10) Atomic physics (81V45)

Cites Work

• Title not available (Why is that?)
• From a particle in a box to the uncertainty relation in a quantum dot and to reflecting walls for relativistic fermions
• Hidden symmetry in the confined hydrogen atom problem
• Application of the Rayleigh-Schrödinger Perturbation Theory to the Hydrogen Atom

Cited In (6)

• Quantum mechanics and the hydrogen atom in a generalized Wigner-seitz cell
• Influence of a cosmic string on the rate of pairs produced by the Coulomb potential
• Fate of accidental symmetries of the relativistic hydrogen atom in a spherical cavity
• Interior-boundary conditions for many-body Dirac operators and codimension-1 boundaries
• Supersymmetric descendants of self-adjointly extended quantum mechanical Hamiltonians
• Bouncing wave packets, Ehrenfest theorem, and uncertainty relation based upon a new concept for the momentum of a particle in a box

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