The 1958 Pekeris-Accad-WEIZAC Ground-Breaking Collaboration that Computed Ground States of Two-Electron Atoms (and its 2010 Redux)

In order to appreciate how well off we mathematicians and scientists are today, with extremely fast hardware and lots and lots of memory, as well as with powerful software, both for numeric and symbolic computation, it may be a good idea to go back to the early days of electronic computers and compare how things went then. We have chosen, as a case study, a problem that was considered a huge challenge at the time. Namely, we looked at C.L. Pekeris's seminal 1958 work on the ground state energies of two-electron atoms. We went through all the computations ab initio with today's software and hardware, with a special emphasis on the symbolic computations which in 1958 had to be made by hand, and which nowadays can be automated and generalized.Comment: 8 pages, 2 photos, final version as it appeared in the journa

Rotational Correction on the Morse Potential Through the Pekeris Approximation and Nikiforov-Uvarov Method

The Nikiforov-Uvarov method is employed to calculate the the Schrodinger equation with a rotation Morse potential. The bound state energy eigenvalues and the corresponding eigenfunction are obtained. All of these calculation present an effective and clear method under a Pekeris approximation to solve a rotation Morse model. Meanwhile the results got here are in a good agreement with ones before.Comment: 11 pages, no figure, submitted to Chemical Physics Letters, (2005

Quantum properties of the electron field in Kerr-Newman black hole manifolds

We study some spectral features of the one-particle electron Hamiltonian obtained by separating the Dirac equation in a Kerr-Newman black hole background. We find that the essential spectrum includes the whole real line. As a consequence, there is no gap in the spectrum and discrete eigenvalues are not allowed for any value of the black hole charge $Q$ and angular momentum $J$. Our spectral analysis will be also related to the dissipation of the black hole angular momentum and charge.Comment: 9 pages, uses revte

Improved analytical approximation to arbitrary l-state solutions of the Schrodinger equation for the hyperbolical potentials

A new approximation scheme to the centrifugal term is proposed to obtain the $l\neq 0$ bound-state solutions of the Schr\"{o}dinger equation for an exponential-type potential in the framework of the hypergeometric method. The corresponding normalized wave functions are also found in terms of the Jacobi polynomials. To show the accuracy of the new proposed approximation scheme, we calculate the energy eigenvalues numerically for arbitrary quantum numbers $n$ and $l$ with two different values of the potential parameter $\sigma_{\text{0}}.$ Our numerical results are of high accuracy like the other numerical results obtained by using program based on a numerical integration procedure for short-range and long-range potentials. The energy bound-state solutions for the s-wave ($l=0$) and $\sigma_{0}=1$ cases are given.Comment: 17 page

Gravitationally induced electromagnetism at the Compton scale

It is shown that Einstein gravity tends to modify the electric and magnetic fields appreciably at distances of the order of the Compton wavelength. At that distance the gravitational field becomes spin dominated rather than mass dominated. The gravitational field couples to the electromagnetic field via the Einstein-Maxwell equations which in the simplest model causes the electrostatic field of charged spinning particles to acquire an oblate structure relative to the spin direction. For electrons and protons, a pure Coulomb field is therefore likely to be incompatible with general relativity at the Compton scale. In the simplest model, the magnetic dipole corresponds to the Dirac g-factor, g=2. Also, it follows from the form of the electric field that the electric dipole moment vanishes, in agreement with current experimental limits for the electron. Quantitatively, the classical Einstein-Maxwell theory predicts the magnetic and electric dipoles of the electron to an accuracy of about one part in 10^{-3} or better. Going to the next multipole order, one finds that the first non-vanishing higher multipole is the electric quadrupole moment which is predicted to be -124 barn for the electron. Any non-zero value of the electric quadrupole moment for the electron or the proton would be a clear sign of curvature due to the implied violation of rotation invariance. There is also a possible spherical modification of the Coulomb force proportional to r^{-4}. However, the size of this effect is well below current experimental limits. The corrections to the hydrogen spectrum are expected to be small but possibly detectable.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures: revised version published in Class. Quantum Grav. 23 (2006) 3111-3122; Conclusions unchange

Positronic lithium, an electronically stable Li-e+^+ ground state

Calculations of the positron-Li system were performed using the Stochastic Variational Method and yielded a minimum energy of -7.53208 Hartree for the L=0 ground state. Unlike previous calculations of this system, the system was found to be stable against dissociation into the Ps + Li$^+$ channel with a binding energy of 0.00217 Hartree and is therefore electronically stable. This is the first instance of a rigorous calculation predicting that it is possible to combine a positron with a neutral atom and form an electronically stable bound state.Comment: 11 pages, 2 tables. To be published in Phys.Rev.Let

On the evaluation of some three-body variational integrals

Stable recursive relations are presented for the numerical computation of the integrals $$\int d{\bf r}_1 d{\bf r}_2 r_1^{l-1} r_2^{m-1} r_{12}^{n-1} \exp{\{-\alpha r_1 -\beta r_2 -\gamma r_{12}\}}$$ ($l$, $m$ and $n$ integer, $\alpha$, $\beta$ and $\gamma$ real) when the indices $l$, $m$ or $n$ are negative. Useful formulas are given for particular values of the parameters $\alpha$, $\beta$ and $\gamma$.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure (PS) and 3 tables. Old figures 2 and 3 replaced by Tables I and III. A further table added. Paper enlarged giving some tips on the convergence of quadrature

Spectral data for doubly excited states of helium with non-zero total angular momentum

A spectral approach is used to evaluate energies and widths for a wide range of singlet and triplet resonance states of helium. Data for total angular momentum $L=1,...,4$ is presented for resonances up to below the 5th single ionization threshold. In addition the expectation value of $\cos(\theta_{12})$ is given for the calculated resonances.Comment: 35 pages, 16 tables, to be published in Atomic Data and Nuclear Data Table

Hyperspherical partial wave calculation for double photoionization of the helium atom at 20 eV excess energy

Hyperspherical partial wave approach has been applied here in the study of double photoionization of the helium atom for equal energy sharing geometry at 20 eV excess energy. Calculations have been done both in length and velocity gauges and are found to agree with each other, with the CCC results and with experiments and exhibit some advantages of the corresponding three particle wave function over other wave functions in use.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure, submitted to J. Phys B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys; v2 - revised considerably, rewritten using ioplatex clas

Two--Electron Atoms in Short Intense Laser Pulses

We discuss a method of solving the time dependent Schrodinger equation for atoms with two active electrons in a strong laser field, which we used in a previous paper [A. Scrinzi and B. Piraux, Phys. Rev. A 56, R13 (1997)] to calculate ionization, double excitation and harmonic generation in Helium by short laser pulses. The method employs complex scaling and an expansion in an explicitly correlated basis. Convergence of the calculations is documented and error estimates are provided. The results for Helium at peak intensities up to 10^15 W/cm^2 and wave length 248 nm are accurate to at least 10 %. Similarly accurate calculations are presented for electron detachment and double excitation of the negative hydrogen ion.Comment: 14 pages, including figure