Friday, January 20, 2006
Tangling Helium's Twin Electrons
Peter Siegel
Physics Department, Cal Poly Pomona
Helium is the simplest of the multi-electron atoms, and the effects of indistinguishable particles play an important role in the energy spectrum. Unfortunately, determining the ground state and its energy is quite difficult. The treatment in introductory quantum courses is crude and the results cannot be compared with data. After introducing some approximation methods used in undergraduate texts, we present an alternative approach which includes electron-electron correlations and does not assume a particular form for the electron radial functions.
Refreshments at 4:00 PM. Seminar begins at 4:10 PM.
Building 8 (Science Bldg.) - Room 241
For further information, please call (909) 869-4014
