Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T05:42:03.915Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Lower-bound energies and the Virial theorem in wave mechanics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

G. L. Caldow
Affiliation:
Mathematical Institute, Oxford
C. A. Coulson
Affiliation:
Mathematical Institute, Oxford

Abstract

Several forms of the lower-bound variational method for the calculation of the eigenvalues in a wave-mechanical problem are considered, and compared; the particular case of the harmonic oscillator being chosen. All forms have certain unsatisfactory features, but some of them are considerably worse than others. One reason why calculations of lower bounds are in general less satisfactory than Ritz-type calculations of an upper bound is shown to be that whereas, in the presence of a scale factor, this latter wave-function satisfies the virial theorem, in none of the lower-bound wave-functions is this true. Similar calculations are reported for the ground state of the helium atom.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge Philosophical Society 1961

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

(1)Temple, G., Proc. Roy. Soc. A, 119 (1928), 276.Google Scholar
(2)Kato, T., J. Phys. Soc. Japan, 4 (1948), 334.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(3)Weinstein, A., Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., Wash., 20 (1934), 529.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(4)Stevenson, A. F., Phys. Rev. 53 (1938), 199.Google Scholar
(5)Stevenson, A. F., and Crawford, M. F., Phys. Rev. 54 (1938), 375.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(6)Gould, S.H., Variational methods for eigenvalue problems (Toronto, 1957).Google Scholar
(7)Bazley, N. W., Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., Wash., 45 (1959), 850.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(8)Kinoshita, T., Phys. Rev. 105 (1957), 1490.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(9)Kinoshita, T., Phys. Rev. 115 (1959), 366.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(10)Kauzmann, W., Quantum chemistry, p. 229. (New York, 1957).Google Scholar
(11)Coulson, C. A., and Bell, R. P., Trans. Faraday Soc. 41 (1945), 141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
(12)Fock, V., Z. Phys. 63 (1930), 855.Google Scholar