Equation 3.

59: The effective potential energy

Goals
This workbook is used to calculate the effective potential energy of
an electron in a hydrogenic atom
Excel skills required for this workbook
1. Writing formulas
2. Plotting functions
Click on

To

Effective potential

Calculate and plot the effective potential for various angular

momenta
Display data used for the graph

Data
Colour Code:

The value within a yellow cell can be set as part of the

exploration process. The value is typically used to calculate data points in
a plot or for a "one-point" calculation of a given property. Changing this value, then,
results in a change in the appearance of a displayed plot or in a calculated value.
The value within a violet cell is the result of a "one-point" calculation using values
in the yellow cells.

Equation 3.59: The effective potential energy

The effective potential energy of an electron with orbital angularmomentum quantum number l is given
by eqn 3.59. We write v = 40Veff/Ze2 and A = 20hbar2/Ze2, then
v(l) = -1/r + Al(l + 1)/r^2

E ffec tiv e p o ten tial, v

l=
l=
l=
A=

0
1
2
0.1

Choose a value of the orbital angula momentum quantum number

Choose a value of A; the higher the value of A, the lower the value of Z

Effective potential
60.00
50.00
40.00
30.00
20.00
10.00
0.00

0.1 9

0 .18

0 .17

0.1 6

0.15

0 .14

0 .13

0.1 2

Explorations:

0.11

-20.00

0 .1

-10.00

Radius

Exploration
Explore how the effective potential energy depends on the reduced mass of the system,
including the case of positronium (e+,e-).

r=
v(0) =
v(1)
v(2)

0.1
-10.00
10.00
50.00

0.11
-9.09
7.44
40.50

0.12
-8.33
5.56
33.33

0.13
-7.69
4.14
27.81

0.14
-7.14
3.06
23.47

0.15
-6.67
2.22
20.00

0.16
-6.25
1.56
17.19

0.17
-5.88
1.04
14.88

0.18
-5.56
0.62
12.96

0.19
-5.26
0.28
11.36