Thursday, April 13, 2017

quantum mechanics - What is known about the hydrogen atom in d spatial dimensions?


In a first (or second) course on quantum mechanics, everyone learns how to solve the time-independent Schrödinger equation for the energy eigenstates of the hydrogen atom: (22μ2e24πϵ0r)|ψ=E|ψ.

The usual procedure is to perform separation of variables to obtain a radial equation and an angular equation, which are solved separately for the radial wavefunction Rn(r) and the spherical harmonics Ym(θ,ϕ). By combining these factors, we obtain the hydrogenic stationary-state wavefunctions ψnm(r,θ,ϕ)=Rn(r)Ym(θ,ϕ).
It seems to me that nothing about this problem (which is essentially the quantum-mechanical analogue of the classical two-body problem) is inherently three-dimensional, so we can just as well consider the corresponding problem in d=1,2,4,5, spatial dimensions. In fact, by transforming into hyperspherical coordinates x1=rcos(ϕ1)x2=rsin(ϕ1)cos(ϕ2)x3=rsin(ϕ1)sin(ϕ2)cos(ϕ3)xd1=rsin(ϕ1)sin(ϕd2)cos(ϕd1)xd=rsin(ϕ1)sin(ϕd2)sin(ϕd1).
the same procedure employed in the 3D case should carry over (with a considerable increase in algebraic complexity). Has this problem been solved before? If so, what is known about the solution? In particular,



  • How many quantum numbers are required to describe hydrogenic stationary states in d spatial dimensions? Do these quantum numbers have a clear physical interpretation, like n,,m?

  • What is the n-dimensional analogue of the Bohr formula En=E1/n2? Do energies continue to depend on a single (principal) quantum number? As the dimension tends to infinity, is the energy spectrum discrete or continuous?

  • What is the d-dimensional analogue of the spherical harmonics Ym(θ,ϕ)? Can these functions be described as eigenfunctions of d-dimensional angular momentum operators, analogous to L2 and Lz? If so, what are the eigenvalues?


  • Is there a reasonable closed form for the d-dimensional hydrogenic stationary-state wavefunctions? If not, is there a reasonable (asymptotic) approximation formula?




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