Chapter 7: Q17P (page 311)
Although the Schr枚dinger equation for helium itself cannot be solved exactly, there exist 鈥渉elium-like鈥 systems that do admit exact solutions. A simple example is 鈥渞ubber-band helium,鈥 in which the Coulomb forces are replaced by Hooke鈥檚 law forces:
(a) Show that the change of variables from
(8.79).
turns the Hamiltonian into two independent three-dimensional harmonic oscillators:
(b) What is the exact ground state energy for this system?
(c) If we didn鈥檛 know the exact solution, we might be inclined to apply the method of Section 7.2 to the Hamiltonian in its original form (Equation 7.78). Do so (but don鈥檛 bother with shielding). How does your result compare with the exact answer? Answer:.
Short Answer
(a) Required equation is proved.
(b)
(c)