A4.15 B4.22

Foundations of Quantum Mechanics
Part II, 2002

Discuss the consequences of indistinguishability for a quantum mechanical state consisting of two identical, non-interacting particles when the particles have (a) spin zero, (b) spin 1/2.

The stationary Schrödinger equation for one particle in the potential

2e24πϵ0r-\frac{2 e^{2}}{4 \pi \epsilon_{0} r}

has normalized, spherically symmetric, real wave functions ψn(r)\psi_{n}(\mathbf{r}) and energy eigenvalues EnE_{n} with E0<E1<E2<E_{0}<E_{1}<E_{2}<\cdots. What are the consequences of the Pauli exclusion principle for the ground state of the helium atom? Assuming that wavefunctions which are not spherically symmetric can be ignored, what are the states of the first excited energy level of the helium atom?

[You may assume here that the electrons are non-interacting.]

Show that, taking into account the interaction between the two electrons, the estimate for the energy of the ground state of the helium atom is

2E0+e24πϵ0d3r1d3r2r1r2ψ02(r1)ψ02(r2)2 E_{0}+\frac{e^{2}}{4 \pi \epsilon_{0}} \int \frac{d^{3} \mathbf{r}_{1} d^{3} \mathbf{r}_{2}}{\left|\mathbf{r}_{1}-\mathbf{r}_{2}\right|} \psi_{0}^{2}\left(\mathbf{r}_{1}\right) \psi_{0}^{2}\left(\mathbf{r}_{2}\right)