A hydrogen atom is an
atom
Every atom is composed of a nucleus and one or more electrons bound to the nucleus. The nucleus is made of one or more protons and a number of neutrons. Only the most common variety of hydrogen has no neutrons.
Every solid, liquid, gas, a ...
of the
chemical element
A chemical element is a species of atoms that have a given number of protons in their atomic nucleus, nuclei, including the pure Chemical substance, substance consisting only of that species. Unlike chemical compounds, chemical elements canno ...
hydrogen
Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-to ...
. The
electrically neutral atom contains a single positively charged
proton and a single negatively charged
electron
The electron ( or ) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary electric charge. Electrons belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family,
and are generally thought to be elementary particles because they have n ...
bound to the nucleus by the
Coulomb force. Atomic hydrogen constitutes
about 75% of the
baryon
In particle physics, a baryon is a type of composite subatomic particle which contains an odd number of valence quarks (at least 3). Baryons belong to the hadron family of particles; hadrons are composed of quarks. Baryons are also classifie ...
ic mass of the universe.
In everyday life on Earth, isolated hydrogen atoms (called "atomic hydrogen") are extremely rare. Instead, a hydrogen atom tends to combine with other atoms in compounds, or with another hydrogen atom to form ordinary (
diatomic) hydrogen gas, H
2. "Atomic hydrogen" and "hydrogen atom" in ordinary English use have overlapping, yet distinct, meanings. For example, a water molecule contains two hydrogen atoms, but does not contain atomic hydrogen (which would refer to isolated hydrogen atoms).
Atomic spectroscopy
Atomic spectroscopy is the study of the electromagnetic radiation absorbed and emitted by atoms. Since unique elements have characteristic (signature) spectra, atomic spectroscopy, specifically the electromagnetic spectrum or mass spectrum, is app ...
shows that there is a discrete infinite set of states in which a hydrogen (or any) atom can exist, contrary to the predictions of
classical physics. Attempts to develop a theoretical understanding of the states of the hydrogen atom have been important to the
history of quantum mechanics, since all other atoms can be roughly understood by knowing in detail about this simplest atomic structure.
Isotopes
The most
abundant isotope
Isotopes are two or more types of atoms that have the same atomic number (number of protons in their nuclei) and position in the periodic table (and hence belong to the same chemical element), and that differ in nucleon numbers ( mass num ...
, hydrogen-1, protium, or light hydrogen, contains no
neutron
The neutron is a subatomic particle, symbol or , which has a neutral (not positive or negative) charge, and a mass slightly greater than that of a proton. Protons and neutrons constitute the atomic nucleus, nuclei of atoms. Since protons and ...
s and is simply a
proton and an
electron
The electron ( or ) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary electric charge. Electrons belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family,
and are generally thought to be elementary particles because they have n ...
. Protium is
stable
A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals and livestock. There are many different types of stables in use today; the ...
and makes up 99.985% of naturally occurring hydrogen atoms.
Deuterium
Deuterium (or hydrogen-2, symbol or deuterium, also known as heavy hydrogen) is one of two stable isotopes of hydrogen (the other being protium, or hydrogen-1). The nucleus of a deuterium atom, called a deuteron, contains one proton and one ...
contains one neutron and one proton in its nucleus. Deuterium is stable and makes up 0.0156% of naturally occurring hydrogen
and is used in industrial processes like
nuclear reactor
A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat fr ...
s and
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance.
Tritium contains two neutrons and one proton in its nucleus and is not stable, decaying with a
half-life
Half-life (symbol ) is the time required for a quantity (of substance) to reduce to half of its initial value. The term is commonly used in nuclear physics to describe how quickly unstable atoms undergo radioactive decay or how long stable ...
of 12.32 years. Because of its short half-life, tritium does not exist in nature except in trace amounts.
Heavier isotopes of hydrogen are only created artificially in
particle accelerators and have half-lives on the order of 10
−22 seconds. They are unbound
resonances located beyond the
neutron drip line
The nuclear drip line is the boundary beyond which atomic nuclei decay by the emission of a proton or neutron.
An arbitrary combination of protons and neutrons does not necessarily yield a stable nucleus. One can think of moving up and/or to ...
; this results in prompt
emission of a neutron.
The formulas below are valid for all three isotopes of hydrogen, but slightly different values of the
Rydberg constant (correction formula given below) must be used for each hydrogen isotope.
Hydrogen ion
Lone neutral hydrogen atoms are rare under normal conditions. However, neutral hydrogen is common when it is
covalently bound to another atom, and hydrogen atoms can also exist in
cationic and anionic forms.
If a neutral hydrogen atom loses its electron, it becomes a cation. The resulting ion, which consists solely of a proton for the usual isotope, is written as "H
+" and sometimes called ''
hydron''. Free protons are common in the
interstellar medium, and
solar wind. In the context of
aqueous solutions of classical
Brønsted–Lowry acids, such as
hydrochloric acid
Hydrochloric acid, also known as muriatic acid, is an aqueous solution of hydrogen chloride. It is a colorless solution with a distinctive pungent smell. It is classified as a strong acid. It is a component of the gastric acid in the dige ...
, it is actually
hydronium
In chemistry, hydronium (hydroxonium in traditional British English) is the common name for the aqueous cation , the type of oxonium ion produced by protonation of water. It is often viewed as the positive ion present when an Arrhenius acid ...
,
H3 O+, that is meant. Instead of a literal ionized single hydrogen atom being formed, the acid transfers the hydrogen to H
2O, forming H
3O
+.
If instead a hydrogen atom gains a second electron, it becomes an anion. The
hydrogen anion is written as "H
–" and called ''
hydride
In chemistry, a hydride is formally the anion of hydrogen( H−). The term is applied loosely. At one extreme, all compounds containing covalently bound H atoms are called hydrides: water (H2O) is a hydride of oxygen, ammonia is a hydride ...
''.
Theoretical analysis
The hydrogen atom has special significance in
quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, ...
and
quantum field theory as a simple
two-body problem physical system which has yielded many simple
analytical solutions in closed-form.
Failed classical description
Experiments by
Ernest Rutherford in 1909 showed the structure of the atom to be a dense, positive nucleus with a tenuous negative charge cloud around it. This immediately raised questions about how such a system could be stable.
Classical electromagnetism had shown that any accelerating charge radiates energy, as shown by the
Larmor formula
In electrodynamics, the Larmor formula is used to calculate the total power radiated by a nonrelativistic point charge as it accelerates. It was first derived by J. J. Larmor in 1897, in the context of the wave theory of light.
When any charge ...
. If the electron is assumed to orbit in a perfect circle and radiates energy continuously, the electron would rapidly spiral into the nucleus with a fall time of:
where
is the
Bohr radius and
is the
classical electron radius. If this were true, all atoms would instantly collapse, however atoms seem to be stable. Furthermore, the spiral inward would release a smear of electromagnetic frequencies as the orbit got smaller. Instead, atoms were observed to only emit discrete frequencies of radiation. The resolution would lie in the development of
quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, ...
.
Bohr–Sommerfeld Model
In 1913,
Niels Bohr obtained the energy levels and spectral frequencies of the hydrogen atom after making a number of simple assumptions in order to correct the failed classical model. The assumptions included:
# Electrons can only be in certain, discrete circular orbits or ''stationary states'', thereby having a discrete set of possible radii and energies.
# Electrons do not emit radiation while in one of these stationary states.
# An electron can gain or lose energy by jumping from one discrete orbit to another.
Bohr supposed that the electron's angular momentum is quantized with possible values:
where
and
is
Planck constant
The Planck constant, or Planck's constant, is a fundamental physical constant of foundational importance in quantum mechanics. The constant gives the relationship between the energy of a photon and its frequency, and by the mass-energy equivale ...
over
. He also supposed that the
centripetal force which keeps the electron in its orbit is provided by the
Coulomb force, and that energy is conserved. Bohr derived the energy of each orbit of the hydrogen atom to be:
where
is the
electron mass
The electron mass (symbol: ''m''e) is the mass of a stationary electron, also known as the invariant mass of the electron. It is one of the fundamental constants of physics. It has a value of about or about , which has an energy-equivalent o ...
,
is the
electron charge,
is the
vacuum permittivity, and
is the
quantum number
In quantum physics and chemistry, quantum numbers describe values of conserved quantities in the dynamics of a quantum system. Quantum numbers correspond to eigenvalues of operators that commute with the Hamiltonian—quantities that can ...
(now known as the
principal quantum number). Bohr's predictions matched experiments measuring the
hydrogen spectral series to the first order, giving more confidence to a theory that used quantized values.
For
, the value
[Eite Tiesinga, Peter J. Mohr, David B. Newell, and Barry N. Taylor (2019), "The 2018 CODATA Recommended Values of the Fundamental Physical Constants" (Web Version 8.0). Database developed by J. Baker, M. Douma, and S. Kotochigova. Available at http://physics.nist.gov/constants, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899]
Link to R∞
Link to hcR∞
/ref>
is called the Rydberg unit of energy. It is related to the Rydberg constant of atomic physics
Atomic physics is the field of physics that studies atoms as an isolated system of electrons and an atomic nucleus. Atomic physics typically refers to the study of atomic structure and the interaction between atoms. It is primarily concerned wit ...
by
The exact value of the Rydberg constant assumes that the nucleus is infinitely massive with respect to the electron. For hydrogen-1, hydrogen-2 (deuterium
Deuterium (or hydrogen-2, symbol or deuterium, also known as heavy hydrogen) is one of two stable isotopes of hydrogen (the other being protium, or hydrogen-1). The nucleus of a deuterium atom, called a deuteron, contains one proton and one ...
), and hydrogen-3 ( tritium) which have finite mass, the constant must be slightly modified to use the reduced mass of the system, rather than simply the mass of the electron. This includes the kinetic energy of the nucleus in the problem, because the total (electron plus nuclear) kinetic energy is equivalent to the kinetic energy of the reduced mass moving with a velocity equal to the electron velocity relative to the nucleus. However, since the nucleus is much heavier than the electron, the electron mass and reduced mass are nearly the same. The Rydberg constant ''RM'' for a hydrogen atom (one electron), ''R'' is given by
where is the mass of the atomic nucleus. For hydrogen-1, the quantity is about 1/1836 (i.e. the electron-to-proton mass ratio). For deuterium and tritium, the ratios are about 1/3670 and 1/5497 respectively. These figures, when added to 1 in the denominator, represent very small corrections in the value of ''R'', and thus only small corrections to all energy levels in corresponding hydrogen isotopes.
There were still problems with Bohr's model:
# it failed to predict other spectral details such as fine structure
In atomic physics, the fine structure describes the splitting of the spectral lines of atoms due to electron spin and relativistic corrections to the non-relativistic Schrödinger equation. It was first measured precisely for the hydrogen atom ...
and hyperfine structure
In atomic physics, hyperfine structure is defined by small shifts in otherwise degenerate energy levels and the resulting splittings in those energy levels of atoms, molecules, and ions, due to electromagnetic multipole interaction between the n ...
# it could only predict energy levels with any accuracy for single–electron atoms (hydrogen-like atoms)
# the predicted values were only correct to , where is the fine-structure constant.
Most of these shortcomings were resolved by Arnold Sommerfeld's modification of the Bohr model. Sommerfeld introduced two additional degrees of freedom, allowing an electron to move on an elliptical orbit characterized by its eccentricity and declination with respect to a chosen axis. This introduced two additional quantum numbers, which correspond to the orbital angular momentum
In physics, angular momentum (rarely, moment of momentum or rotational momentum) is the rotational analog of linear momentum. It is an important physical quantity because it is a conserved quantity—the total angular momentum of a closed syst ...
and its projection on the chosen axis. Thus the correct multiplicity of states (except for the factor 2 accounting for the yet unknown electron spin) was found. Further, by applying special relativity
In physics, the special theory of relativity, or special relativity for short, is a scientific theory regarding the relationship between space and time. In Albert Einstein's original treatment, the theory is based on two postulates:
# The law ...
to the elliptic orbits, Sommerfeld succeeded in deriving the correct expression for the fine structure of hydrogen spectra (which happens to be exactly the same as in the most elaborate Dirac theory). However, some observed phenomena, such as the anomalous Zeeman effect
The Zeeman effect (; ) is the effect of splitting of a spectral line into several components in the presence of a static magnetic field. It is named after the Dutch physicist Pieter Zeeman, who discovered it in 1896 and received a Nobel pr ...
, remained unexplained. These issues were resolved with the full development of quantum mechanics and the Dirac equation. It is often alleged that the Schrödinger equation
The Schrödinger equation is a linear partial differential equation that governs the wave function of a quantum-mechanical system. It is a key result in quantum mechanics, and its discovery was a significant landmark in the development of th ...
is superior to the Bohr–Sommerfeld theory in describing hydrogen atom. This is not the case, as most of the results of both approaches coincide or are very close (a remarkable exception is the problem of hydrogen atom in crossed electric and magnetic fields, which cannot be self-consistently solved in the framework of the Bohr–Sommerfeld theory), and in both theories the main shortcomings result from the absence of the electron spin. It was the complete failure of the Bohr–Sommerfeld theory to explain many-electron systems (such as helium atom or hydrogen molecule) which demonstrated its inadequacy in describing quantum phenomena.
Schrödinger equation
The Schrödinger equation allows one to calculate the stationary states and also the time evolution of quantum systems. Exact analytical answers are available for the nonrelativistic hydrogen atom. Before we go to present a formal account, here we give an elementary overview.
Given that the hydrogen atom contains a nucleus and an electron, quantum mechanics allows one to predict the probability of finding the electron at any given radial distance . It is given by the square of a mathematical function known as the "wavefunction," which is a solution of the Schrödinger equation. The lowest energy equilibrium state of the hydrogen atom is known as the ground state. The ground state wave function is known as the wavefunction. It is written as:
Here, is the numerical value of the Bohr radius. The probability density of finding the electron at a distance in any radial direction is the squared value of the wavefunction:
The wavefunction is spherically symmetric, and the surface area of a shell at distance is , so the total probability of the electron being in a shell at a distance and thickness is
It turns out that this is a maximum at . That is, the Bohr picture of an electron orbiting the nucleus at radius corresponds to the most probable radius. Actually, there is a finite probability that the electron may be found at any place , with the
probability indicated by the square of the wavefunction. Since the probability of finding the electron ''somewhere'' in the whole volume is unity, the integral of is unity. Then we say that the wavefunction is properly normalized.
As discussed below, the ground state is also indicated by the quantum numbers . The second lowest energy states, just above the ground state, are given by the quantum numbers , , and . These states all have the same energy and are known as the and states. There is one state:
and there are three states:
An electron in the or state is most likely to be found in the second Bohr orbit with energy given by the Bohr formula.
Wavefunction
The Hamiltonian of the hydrogen atom is the radial kinetic energy operator and Coulomb attraction force between the positive proton and negative electron. Using the time-independent Schrödinger equation, ignoring all spin-coupling interactions and using the reduced mass , the equation is written as:
Expanding the Laplacian in spherical coordinates:
This is a separable, partial differential equation which can be solved in terms of special functions. When the wavefunction is separated as product of functions , , and three independent differential functions appears with A and B being the separation constants:
* radial:
* polar:
* azimuth:
The normalized position wavefunction
A wave function in quantum physics is a mathematical description of the quantum state of an isolated quantum system. The wave function is a complex-valued probability amplitude, and the probabilities for the possible results of measurements ...
s, given in spherical coordinates are:
where:
* ,
* is the reduced Bohr radius, ,
* is a generalized Laguerre polynomial of degree , and
* is a spherical harmonic
In mathematics and physical science, spherical harmonics are special functions defined on the surface of a sphere. They are often employed in solving partial differential equations in many scientific fields.
Since the spherical harmonics form ...
function of degree and order . Note that the generalized Laguerre polynomials are defined differently by different authors. The usage here is consistent with the definitions used by Messiah, and Mathematica. In other places, the Laguerre polynomial includes a factor of , or the generalized Laguerre polynomial appearing in the hydrogen wave function is instead.
The quantum numbers can take the following values:
* ( principal quantum number)
* ( azimuthal quantum number)
* ( magnetic quantum number).
Additionally, these wavefunctions are ''normalized'' (i.e., the integral of their modulus square equals 1) and orthogonal:
where is the state represented by the wavefunction in Dirac notation, and is the Kronecker delta function.
The wavefunctions in momentum space are related to the wavefunctions in position space through a Fourier transform
which, for the bound states, results in
where denotes a Gegenbauer polynomial
In mathematics, Gegenbauer polynomials or ultraspherical polynomials ''C''(''x'') are orthogonal polynomials on the interval minus;1,1with respect to the weight function (1 − ''x''2)''α''–1/2. They generalize Legendre polynom ...
and is in units of .
The solutions to the Schrödinger equation for hydrogen are analytical, giving a simple expression for the hydrogen energy levels
A quantum mechanical system or particle that is bound—that is, confined spatially—can only take on certain discrete values of energy, called energy levels. This contrasts with classical particles, which can have any amount of energy. The ...
and thus the frequencies of the hydrogen spectral line
A spectral line is a dark or bright line in an otherwise uniform and continuous spectrum, resulting from emission or absorption of light in a narrow frequency range, compared with the nearby frequencies. Spectral lines are often used to ident ...
s and fully reproduced the Bohr model and went beyond it. It also yields two other quantum numbers and the shape of the electron's wave function ("orbital") for the various possible quantum-mechanical states, thus explaining the anisotropic character of atomic bonds.
The Schrödinger equation also applies to more complicated atoms and molecule
A molecule is a group of two or more atoms held together by attractive forces known as chemical bonds; depending on context, the term may or may not include ions which satisfy this criterion. In quantum physics, organic chemistry, and b ...
s. When there is more than one electron or nucleus the solution is not analytical and either computer calculations are necessary or simplifying assumptions must be made.
Since the Schrödinger equation is only valid for non-relativistic quantum mechanics, the solutions it yields for the hydrogen atom are not entirely correct. The Dirac equation of relativistic quantum theory improves these solutions (see below).
Results of Schrödinger equation
The solution of the Schrödinger equation (wave equation) for the hydrogen atom uses the fact that the Coulomb potential produced by the nucleus is isotropic
Isotropy is uniformity in all orientations; it is derived . Precise definitions depend on the subject area. Exceptions, or inequalities, are frequently indicated by the prefix ' or ', hence '' anisotropy''. ''Anisotropy'' is also used to describ ...
(it is radially symmetric in space and only depends on the distance to the nucleus). Although the resulting energy eigenfunctions (the ''orbitals'') are not necessarily isotropic themselves, their dependence on the angular coordinates follows completely generally from this isotropy of the underlying potential: the eigenstates of the Hamiltonian (that is, the energy eigenstates) can be chosen as simultaneous eigenstates of the angular momentum operator
In quantum mechanics, the angular momentum operator is one of several related operators analogous to classical angular momentum. The angular momentum operator plays a central role in the theory of atomic and molecular physics and other quantum p ...
. This corresponds to the fact that angular momentum is conserved in the orbital motion of the electron around the nucleus. Therefore, the energy eigenstates may be classified by two angular momentum quantum number
In quantum physics and chemistry, quantum numbers describe values of conserved quantities in the dynamics of a quantum system. Quantum numbers correspond to eigenvalues of operators that commute with the Hamiltonian—quantities that can ...
s, and (both are integers). The angular momentum quantum number determines the magnitude of the angular momentum. The magnetic quantum number determines the projection of the angular momentum on the (arbitrarily chosen) -axis.
In addition to mathematical expressions for total angular momentum and angular momentum projection of wavefunctions, an expression for the radial dependence of the wave functions must be found. It is only here that the details of the Coulomb potential enter (leading to Laguerre polynomials in ). This leads to a third quantum number, the principal quantum number . The principal quantum number in hydrogen is related to the atom's total energy.
Note that the maximum value of the angular momentum quantum number is limited by the principal quantum number: it can run only up to , i.e., .
Due to angular momentum conservation, states of the same but different have the same energy (this holds for all problems with rotational symmetry
Rotational symmetry, also known as radial symmetry in geometry, is the property a shape has when it looks the same after some rotation by a partial turn. An object's degree of rotational symmetry is the number of distinct orientations in which ...
). In addition, for the hydrogen atom, states of the same but different are also degenerate (i.e., they have the same energy). However, this is a specific property of hydrogen and is no longer true for more complicated atoms which have an (effective) potential differing from the form (due to the presence of the inner electrons shielding the nucleus potential).
Taking into account the spin of the electron adds a last quantum number, the projection of the electron's spin angular momentum along the -axis, which can take on two values. Therefore, any eigenstate of the electron in the hydrogen atom is described fully by four quantum numbers. According to the usual rules of quantum mechanics, the actual state of the electron may be any superposition of these states. This explains also why the choice of -axis for the directional quantization of the angular momentum vector is immaterial: an orbital of given and obtained for another preferred axis can always be represented as a suitable superposition of the various states of different (but same ) that have been obtained for .
Mathematical summary of eigenstates of hydrogen atom
In 1928, Paul Dirac
Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac (; 8 August 1902 – 20 October 1984) was an English theoretical physicist who is regarded as one of the most significant physicists of the 20th century. He was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the Univer ...
found an equation that was fully compatible with special relativity
In physics, the special theory of relativity, or special relativity for short, is a scientific theory regarding the relationship between space and time. In Albert Einstein's original treatment, the theory is based on two postulates:
# The law ...
, and (as a consequence) made the wave function a 4-component "Dirac spinor
In quantum field theory, the Dirac spinor is the spinor that describes all known fundamental particles that are fermions, with the possible exception of neutrinos. It appears in the plane-wave solution to the Dirac equation, and is a certain co ...
" including "up" and "down" spin components, with both positive and "negative" energy (or matter and antimatter). The solution to this equation gave the following results, more accurate than the Schrödinger solution.
=Energy levels
=
The energy levels of hydrogen, including fine structure
In atomic physics, the fine structure describes the splitting of the spectral lines of atoms due to electron spin and relativistic corrections to the non-relativistic Schrödinger equation. It was first measured precisely for the hydrogen atom ...
(excluding Lamb shift and hyperfine structure
In atomic physics, hyperfine structure is defined by small shifts in otherwise degenerate energy levels and the resulting splittings in those energy levels of atoms, molecules, and ions, due to electromagnetic multipole interaction between the n ...
), are given by the Sommerfeld fine-structure expression:[GermanEnglish]
/ref>
where is the fine-structure constant and is the total angular momentum quantum number, which is equal to , depending on the orientation of the electron spin relative to the orbital angular momentum. This formula represents a small correction to the energy obtained by Bohr and Schrödinger as given above. The factor in square brackets in the last expression is nearly one; the extra term arises from relativistic effects (for details, see #Features going beyond the Schrödinger solution). It is worth noting that this expression was first obtained by A. Sommerfeld in 1916 based on the relativistic version of the old Bohr theory. Sommerfeld has however used different notation for the quantum numbers.
Coherent states
The coherent state
In physics, specifically in quantum mechanics, a coherent state is the specific quantum state of the quantum harmonic oscillator, often described as a state which has dynamics most closely resembling the oscillatory behavior of a classical h ...
s have been proposed as
which satisfies and takes the form
Visualizing the hydrogen electron orbitals
The image to the right shows the first few hydrogen atom orbitals (energy eigenfunctions). These are cross-sections of the probability density that are color-coded (black represents zero density and white represents the highest density). The angular momentum (orbital) quantum number ''ℓ'' is denoted in each column, using the usual spectroscopic letter code (''s'' means ''ℓ'' = 0, ''p'' means ''ℓ'' = 1, ''d'' means ''ℓ'' = 2). The main (principal) quantum number ''n'' (= 1, 2, 3, ...) is marked to the right of each row. For all pictures the magnetic quantum number ''m'' has been set to 0, and the cross-sectional plane is the ''xz''-plane (''z'' is the vertical axis). The probability density in three-dimensional space is obtained by rotating the one shown here around the ''z''-axis.
The " ground state", i.e. the state of lowest energy, in which the electron is usually found, is the first one, the 1''s'' state ( principal quantum level ''n'' = 1, ''ℓ'' = 0).
Black lines occur in each but the first orbital: these are the nodes of the wavefunction, i.e. where the probability density is zero. (More precisely, the nodes are spherical harmonics
In mathematics and physical science, spherical harmonics are special functions defined on the surface of a sphere. They are often employed in solving partial differential equations in many scientific fields.
Since the spherical harmonics form ...
that appear as a result of solving the Schrödinger equation
The Schrödinger equation is a linear partial differential equation that governs the wave function of a quantum-mechanical system. It is a key result in quantum mechanics, and its discovery was a significant landmark in the development of th ...
in spherical coordinates.)
The quantum number
In quantum physics and chemistry, quantum numbers describe values of conserved quantities in the dynamics of a quantum system. Quantum numbers correspond to eigenvalues of operators that commute with the Hamiltonian—quantities that can ...
s determine the layout of these nodes. There are:
* total nodes,
* of which are angular nodes:
** angular nodes go around the axis (in the ''xy'' plane). (The figure above does not show these nodes since it plots cross-sections through the ''xz''-plane.)
** (the remaining angular nodes) occur on the (vertical) axis.
* (the remaining non-angular nodes) are radial nodes.
Features going beyond the Schrödinger solution
There are several important effects that are neglected by the Schrödinger equation and which are responsible for certain small but measurable deviations of the real spectral lines from the predicted ones:
* Although the mean speed of the electron in hydrogen is only 1/137th of the speed of light
The speed of light in vacuum, commonly denoted , is a universal physical constant that is important in many areas of physics. The speed of light is exactly equal to ). According to the special theory of relativity, is the upper limit fo ...
, many modern experiments are sufficiently precise that a complete theoretical explanation requires a fully relativistic treatment of the problem. A relativistic treatment results in a momentum increase of about 1 part in 37,000 for the electron. Since the electron's wavelength is determined by its momentum, orbitals containing higher speed electrons show contraction due to smaller wavelengths.
* Even when there is no external magnetic field, in the inertial frame of the moving electron, the electromagnetic field of the nucleus has a magnetic component. The spin of the electron has an associated magnetic moment
In electromagnetism, the magnetic moment is the magnetic strength and orientation of a magnet or other object that produces a magnetic field. Examples of objects that have magnetic moments include loops of electric current (such as electroma ...
which interacts with this magnetic field. This effect is also explained by special relativity, and it leads to the so-called '' spin–orbit coupling'', i.e., an interaction between the electron
The electron ( or ) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary electric charge. Electrons belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family,
and are generally thought to be elementary particles because they have n ...
's orbital motion around the nucleus, and its spin.
Both of these features (and more) are incorporated in the relativistic Dirac equation, with predictions that come still closer to experiment. Again the Dirac equation may be solved analytically in the special case of a two-body system, such as the hydrogen atom. The resulting solution quantum states now must be classified by the total angular momentum number (arising through the coupling between electron spin and orbital angular momentum). States of the same and the same are still degenerate. Thus, direct analytical solution of Dirac equation predicts 2S() and 2P() levels of hydrogen to have exactly the same energy, which is in a contradiction with observations ( Lamb–Retherford experiment).
* There are always vacuum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field
An electromagnetic field (also EM field or EMF) is a classical (i.e. non-quantum) field produced by (stationary or moving) electric charges. It is the field described by classical electrodynamics (a classical field theory) and is the classical ...
, according to quantum mechanics. Due to such fluctuations degeneracy between states of the same but different is lifted, giving them slightly different energies. This has been demonstrated in the famous Lamb–Retherford experiment and was the starting point for the development of the theory of quantum electrodynamics (which is able to deal with these vacuum fluctuations and employs the famous Feynman diagrams for approximations using perturbation theory
In mathematics and applied mathematics, perturbation theory comprises methods for finding an approximate solution to a problem, by starting from the exact solution of a related, simpler problem. A critical feature of the technique is a middle ...
). This effect is now called Lamb shift.
For these developments, it was essential that the solution of the Dirac equation for the hydrogen atom could be worked out exactly, such that any experimentally observed deviation had to be taken seriously as a signal of failure of the theory.
Alternatives to the Schrödinger theory
In the language of Heisenberg's matrix mechanics, the hydrogen atom was first solved by Wolfgang Pauli[
] using a rotational symmetry
Rotational symmetry, also known as radial symmetry in geometry, is the property a shape has when it looks the same after some rotation by a partial turn. An object's degree of rotational symmetry is the number of distinct orientations in which ...
in four dimensions (4)-symmetrygenerated by the angular momentum
In physics, angular momentum (rarely, moment of momentum or rotational momentum) is the rotational analog of linear momentum. It is an important physical quantity because it is a conserved quantity—the total angular momentum of a closed syst ...
and the Laplace–Runge–Lenz vector. By extending the symmetry group O(4) to the dynamical group O(4,2),
the entire spectrum and all transitions were embedded in a single irreducible group representation.
In 1979 the (non-relativistic) hydrogen atom was solved for the first time within Feynman's path integral formulation
of quantum mechanics
Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, ...
by Duru and Kleinert.[
] This work greatly extended the range of applicability of Feynman's method.
See also
* Antihydrogen
Antihydrogen () is the antimatter counterpart of hydrogen. Whereas the common hydrogen atom is composed of an electron and proton, the antihydrogen atom is made up of a positron and antiproton. Scientists hope that studying antihydrogen may shed ...
* Atomic orbital
In atomic theory and quantum mechanics, an atomic orbital is a function describing the location and wave-like behavior of an electron in an atom. This function can be used to calculate the probability of finding any electron of an atom in any ...
* Balmer series
* Helium atom
* Lithium atom
A lithium atom is an atom of the chemical element lithium. Stable lithium is composed of three electrons bound by the electromagnetic force to a nucleus containing three protons along with either three or four neutrons, depending on the isotope, h ...
* Hydrogen molecular ion
The dihydrogen cation or hydrogen molecular ion is a cation (positive ion) with formula . It consists of two hydrogen nuclei (protons) sharing a single electron. It is the simplest molecular ion.
The ion can be formed from the ionization of a ne ...
* Proton decay
* Quantum chemistry
* Quantum state
In quantum physics, a quantum state is a mathematical entity that provides a probability distribution for the outcomes of each possible measurement on a system. Knowledge of the quantum state together with the rules for the system's evolution i ...
*
* Trihydrogen cation
* List of quantum-mechanical systems with analytical solutions
Much insight in quantum mechanics can be gained from understanding the closed-form solutions to the time-dependent non-relativistic Schrödinger equation. It takes the form
:
\hat \psi\left(\mathbf, t\right) =
\left - \frac \nabla^2 + V\left(\mat ...
References
Books
* Section 4.2 deals with the hydrogen atom specifically, but all of Chapter 4 is relevant.
* Kleinert, H. (2009). ''Path Integrals in Quantum Mechanics, Statistics, Polymer Physics, and Financial Markets'', 4th edition
Worldscibooks.com
World Scientific, Singapore (also available onlin
External links
{{Authority control
Atoms
Quantum models
Hydrogen
Hydrogen physics
Isotopes of hydrogen
pl:Wodór atomowy