Electrons on sphere in the helium-like atomic systems

TL;DR

This paper investigates a helium-like atomic system with electrons constrained on a sphere, treating the sphere radius as a quantum variable, and explores unique properties and wave functions of this configuration using advanced variational methods.

Contribution

It introduces a quantum mechanical treatment of the sphere radius and provides high-accuracy wave functions for electrons on a sphere, extending previous models.

Findings

Unusual expectation values for kinetic and potential energy operators.

Analytic high-accuracy wave functions for electrons on a sphere.

Refined formulas for two-electron Fock expansion using Green's function.

Abstract

The properties of a special configuration of a helium-like atomic system, when both electrons are on the surface of a sphere of radius $r$, and angle $\theta$ characterizes their positions on sphere, are investigated. Unlike the previous studies, $r$ is considered as a quantum mechanical variable but not a parameter. It is important that the "electrons-on-sphere" and the "collinear" configuration are coincident in two points. For $\theta=0$ one obtains the state of the electron-electron coalescence, whereas the angle $\theta=\pi$ characterizes the $\textbf{e-n-e}$ configuration when the electrons are located at the ends of the diameter of sphere with the nucleus at its center. The Pekeris-like method representing a fully three-body variational technique is used for the expedient calculations. Some interesting features of the expectation values representing the basic characteristic of the "electrons-on-sphere" configuration are studied. The unusual properties of the expectation values of the operators associated with the kinetic and potential energy of the two-electron atom/ion possessing the "electrons-on-sphere" configuration are found. Refined formulas for calculations of the two-electron Fock expansion by the Green's function approach are presented. The analytic wave functions of high accuracy describing the "electrons-on-sphere" configuration are obtained. All results are illustrated in tables and figures.