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Relain
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Hey all, I'm a Theoretical Physics undergrad and so far I've only done one course in QM. Mainly playing with the TISE pushing wavefunctions around.
Anyway after some trolling on here I've gotten to wondering, in a hydrogen atom why doesn't the electron just collapse into the nucleus? The coulomb potential is pretty strong, i don't think that the Pauli exclusion principle would apply as electrons have lepton number right? So they can both occupy the same QS? So i got to thinking it must be related to the angular momentum of the electon, similar to closed gravitational orbits in a classical system, but this didn't seem like a nice enough solution.
I think that for the atomic L = 0 state the <r> = 0, but yet I'm sure there are plenty of hydrogen atoms like this that haven't just decayed into a neutron and neutrino. this can happen though , electron capture, in multi electron atoms.
Is this related to the spin of the proton / electon and their respective compatability or otherwise?
Can you use the TDSE to show that the wavefunction of the electron won't collapse over time?
Thanks for any help you can give, I've just about lost all faith in my brian right now. :)
Anyway after some trolling on here I've gotten to wondering, in a hydrogen atom why doesn't the electron just collapse into the nucleus? The coulomb potential is pretty strong, i don't think that the Pauli exclusion principle would apply as electrons have lepton number right? So they can both occupy the same QS? So i got to thinking it must be related to the angular momentum of the electon, similar to closed gravitational orbits in a classical system, but this didn't seem like a nice enough solution.
I think that for the atomic L = 0 state the <r> = 0, but yet I'm sure there are plenty of hydrogen atoms like this that haven't just decayed into a neutron and neutrino. this can happen though , electron capture, in multi electron atoms.
Is this related to the spin of the proton / electon and their respective compatability or otherwise?
Can you use the TDSE to show that the wavefunction of the electron won't collapse over time?
Thanks for any help you can give, I've just about lost all faith in my brian right now. :)