The ground state energy of a helium atom under strong confinement

We analyze the helium atom ground state under strong confinement where the atom is embedded in a spherical box with impenetrable walls. In previous studies, variational calculations of the ground state energy for strongly confined helium have proven to be a difficult numerical task, especially when...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physics letters. A 2010-04, Vol.374 (19), p.2044-2047
Main Authors: Montgomery, H.E., Aquino, N., Flores-Riveros, A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Confinement
Ground state
Helium atoms
Mathematical analysis
Perturbation theory
Solid state physics
Tasks
Walls
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Summary:We analyze the helium atom ground state under strong confinement where the atom is embedded in a spherical box with impenetrable walls. In previous studies, variational calculations of the ground state energy for strongly confined helium have proven to be a difficult numerical task, especially when large basis set expansions were considered. In the present work we have solved the time-independent Schrödinger equation using first-order Rayleigh–Schrödinger perturbation theory and then extended the calculations using fifth-order variational perturbation theory. Our results show that these approaches provide good alternative approaches for calculation of the ground state energy for a strongly confined helium atom.
ISSN:0375-9601
1873-2429
DOI:10.1016/j.physleta.2010.02.074