A symbolic-numerical algorithm for solving the eigenvalue problem for a hydrogen atom in magnetic field

Abstract

The boundary-value problem in spherical coordinates for the Shrödinger equation describing a hydrogen-like atom in a strong magnetic field is reduced to the problem for a set of radial equations in the framework of the Kantorovich method. The effective potentials of these equations are given by integrals over the angular variable between the oblate angular spheroidal functions depending on the radial variable as a parameter and their derivatives with respect to the parameter. A symbolic-numerical algorithm for evaluating the oblate spheroidal functions and corresponding eigenvalues which depend on the parameter, their derivatives with respect to the parameter and matrix elements is presented. The efficiency and accuracy of the algorithm and of the numerical scheme derived are confirmed by computations of eigenenergies and eigenfunctions for the low-excited states of a hydrogen atom in the uniform magnetic field. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.