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Applying the Schrödinger Equation in Three Dimensions

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Updated:  
2016-03-26 14:06:25
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In quantum physics, you can apply the Schrödinger equation when you work on problems that have a central potential. These are problems where you're able to separate the wave function into a radial part (which depends on the form of the potential) and an angular part, which is a spherical harmonic.

Central potentials are spherically symmetrical potentials, of the kind where V(r) = V(r). In other words, the potential is independent of the vector nature of the radius vector; the potential depends on only the magnitude of vector r (which is r), not on the angle of r.

The Schrödinger equation looks like this in three dimensions, where

image0.png

is the Laplacian operator:

image1.png

And the Laplacian operator looks like this in rectangular coordinates:

image2.png

In spherical coordinates, it's a little messy, but you can simplify later. Check out the spherical Laplacian operator:

image3.png

Here, L2 is the square of the orbital angular momentum:

image4.png

So in spherical coordinates, the Schrödinger equation for a central potential looks like this when you substitute in the terms:

image5.png

Take a look at the preceding equation. The first term actually corresponds to the radial kinetic energy — that is, the kinetic energy of the particle moving in the radial direction. The second term corresponds to the rotational kinetic energy. And the third term corresponds to the potential energy.

So what can you say about the solutions to this version of the Schrödinger equation? You can note that the first term depends only on r, as does the third, and that the second term depends only on angles. So you can break the wave function,

image6.png

into two parts:

  • A radial part

  • A part that depends on the angles

This is a special property of problems with central potentials.

About This Article

This article is from the book: 

About the book author:

Dr. Steven Holzner has written more than 40 books about physics and programming. He was a contributing editor at PC Magazine and was on the faculty at both MIT and Cornell. He has authored Dummies titles including Physics For Dummies and Physics Essentials For Dummies. Dr. Holzner received his PhD at Cornell.