Atoms

Abstract

In previous chapters we described hydrogen-like atoms, and we have also considered the helium atom. In this chapter we will give some ideas about the problems encountered in trying to study arbitrary atoms. Due to the complexity of this problem, we will not present a detailed account, and refer the interested reader to the excellent book of Condon and Shortley [CS 57] and to the books by Bethe and Jackiw [BJ 68],Kuhn [KU 62] and Slater [SL 60], among others. For a rigorous analysis of these systems we recommend [TH 81], [VW 81]. So far we have been using arbitrary units. In order to simplify the form of the equations in this chapter and the next we will adopt natural units where ħ = c = 1. In this system, any physical quantity can be expressed in powers of length, mass, or energy.