Physics 424, Fall 2017

Homework 5
Due Wednesday October 18th
Turn in the homework in at the start of lecture.

Problem 1: Hydrogen Atom Nodes

(a) The only φ dependence of ψnlm comes from the factor eimφ in the spherical harmonic Ylm (θ, φ),
which is just a constant when we take the magnitude squared |ψnlm |2 . Therefore, all the probability
densities are rotationally symmetric about the z axis. The fact that the plots are left-right symmetric
(i.e, the same for φ = 0 and φ = π) is consistent with the conclusion that the probability densities are
rotationally symmetric, but not sufficient to prove rotational symmetry.
(b) The nodes of the radial function (which appear as nodal points in 1D plots of Rnl (r)) are nodal
circles in these 2D plots. In a full 3D plot, they would be nodal spheres. Note that we do not count
r = 0 as a node. This matrix gives the number of radial nodes in each plot in the grid:
 
3 2 0 0
0 2 3 1
 

4 1 1 2

(c) The nodes of the angular function (which appear as nodal points in 1D plots of Ylm (θ, φ)) are straight
(half-infinite) nodal lines in these 2D plots. In a full 3D plot, they would be nodal cones. Note that the
xy plane in 3D is just a special case of a cone, with an opening angle of 180◦ . This matrix gives the
number of radial nodes in each plot in the grid:
 
1 0 2 4
3 2 0 2
 

0 1 3 1

(d) For all of the examples shown here, the general relationship is that the total number of radial plus
angular nodes equals n − 1. However, note that it is the number of nodes of Re( ψnlm ) that matters,
not |ψnlm |2 as plotted here, but these examples all have m = 0 so all the nodes are visible.
(e) Since these examples all have m = 0, all the nodes are visible and the conclusion is the same as
in (d): the total number of radial plus angular (θ and φ) nodes equals n − 1.

Problem 2: Hydrogen Atom I

(a) The radial wavefunction is
 3/2
1 1 r −r/2a0
R2,1 =√ e
3 2a0 a0
The angular part is r
3
Y11 = sin θeiφ
8π

1
 Figure 1: Drawing of the 2p (left) radial wavefunction and (right) angular dependence.

(b) The probability density is

3
r4 −r/a0

2 2 1 1
r R2.1 = e
3 2a0 a0
Differentiate it and set the result to zero
1 3 r3 −r/a0
   
1 r
e 4− =0
3 2a0 a0 a0
so we obtain r = 4a0 , where the radial probability density is a maximum.
(c) The initial state energy of the electron is
13.6
E2 = − eV = −3.4eV
4
The final state energy of the electron is
13.6
E1 = − eV = −13.6eV
1
Thus the energy of the emitted photon is

∆E = E2 − E1 = −3.4 + 16.3 = 10.2eV

Problem 3: Hydrogen Atom II

Consider an electron in the ground state (n = 1, l = 0, m = 0) of the hydrogen atom.
(a) The ground state wavefunction is spherically symmetric so only depends on r
1
ψ100 (r) = √ e−r/a
πa3
and the relevant integral is (with exponent p = 1 or 2)
Z ∞
p ap
hr i = 4π dr r2+p |ψ100 (r)|2 = p+1 Γ(p + 3)
0 2

2
where the factor of 4π comes from the angular integrals,
Z π Z 2π
sin(θ) dθ dφ = 4π
0 0

and Γ(x) is the gamma function that generalizes the factorial function, with Γ(n) = (n − 1)! when n is
a positive integer. Using p = 1, we obtain:
3
hri = a
2
and with p = 2,
hr2 i = 3a2 .

Since the ground state is spherically symmetric, it is also symmetric under the interchange y ↔ −y and
therefore we must have hyi = 0. Similarly hxi = hzi = 0. To find hy 2 i we note that

hr2 i = hx2 i + hy 2 i + hz 2 i ,

and again appeal to spherical symmetry to argue that

hx2 i = hy 2 i = hz 2 i .

Therefore we must have

1 2
hx2 i = hy 2 i = hz 2 i = hr i = a2
3
(b) The probability of measuring r in the interval [r, r + dr] for the ground state is p(r)dr where p(r)
is the radial probability density defined such that:
Z ∞
p(r) = 1
0

Comparing with the normalization integral for an arbitrary state

Z ∞ Z π Z 2π
2
r dr sin(θ)dθ dφ |ψ100 (r)|2 = 1,
0 0 0

we can identify the radial probability density as

Z π Z 2π
p(r) = r2 sin(θ)dθ dφ |ψ100 (r)|2 .
0 0

In the case of the ground state ψ100 (r), the angular integrals just give the constant 4π (surface area of
the unit sphere) and
4r2
p(r) = 4πr2 |ψ100 (r)|2 = 3 e−2r a.
a
(c) To find the most probable value of r, look for an extremum of p(r):

dp r(a − r) −2r
=8 e a=0
dr a4
The solutions to this equation are r = 0 and r = a, but r = 0 corresponds to a minimum of p(r) so
r = a corresponds to the maximum (most probable value) that we seek.

3
(d) We expect to find a most probable value of r (a) that is less than the expectation value of r (3a/2)
since p(r) is asymmetric about its maximum r = a due to the constraint r ≥ 0.
Problem 4: Pionic Atom
In class we saw that
r r
3 3
Y1±1 (θ, φ) =∓ sin θe±iφ and Y10 (θ, φ) = cos θ
8π 4π
Therefore r r
1 1 3 3 x
− Y11 + Y1−1 = sin θ cos φ =
2 2 8π 8π r
r r
1 1 3 3 y
− Y11 + Y1−1 = sin θ sin φ =
2i 2i 8π 8π r
r r
3 3 z
Y10 = cos θ =
4π 4π r
Thus
r   r  
3 1 1 1 −1 1 1 1 −1 0 3 1 − i 1 1 + i −1 1 0
x+y +z = r − Y1 + Y1 − Y1 + Y1 + Y1 = r − Y + Y + √ Y1
8π 2 2 2i 2i 8π 2 1 2 1 2
If we look at this expression as a superposition of the form
−1
c1 Y11 + c0 Y10 + c1 Y−1

we see that (a) and (b) The pion is in a p orbital since the only spherical harmonics involved in the
superposition are the Y1m .
p √
(b) For l = 1, |L| = l(l + 1)h̄ = 2h̄.
(c) The probabilities are |c1 |2 = |c0 |2 = |c−1 |2 , so there is a 1/3 probability of obtaining Lz = 0 if a
measurement of Lz is carried out.

Problem 5: Hydrogenic Atom - Griffiths 4.16

In this problem, we are asked to consider the generalization of the formulae defining the hydrogen atom
to nuclei with greater charge, so-called hydrogenic atoms. To do so, we will simply make the change
e2 → Ze2 . The energies depend on e4 , the Bohr radius depends on e−2 and the Rydberg constant as
e4 . Thus, the dependence on Z for a hydrogenic atom is

E(Z) = Z 2 E, a(Z) = Z −1 a, R(Z) = Z 2 R

where the terms on the right sides of the equations are those quantities from the hydrogen atom.
We are also asked to compute where in the electromagnetic spectrum the Lyman series falls for
Z = 2 and Z = 3. This is straightforward and only requires us to plug the result into Eq. [4.93] on
page 158 in Griffiths.
What is important to note is that the wavelength is proportional to Z −2 and so the wavelength
decreases as Z grows. As the Lyman series is initially in the ultraviolet for hydrogen, for Z = 2, 3 the
wavelength is only shorter and so stays in the ultraviolet.