Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 The Theory of Special Relativity
- 2 Aspects of Angular Momentum
- 3 Particles of Spin Zero
- 4 The Dirac Equation
- 5 Free Particles/Antiparticles
- 6 Symmetries and Operators
- 7 Separating Particles from Antiparticles
- 8 One-Electron Atoms
- 9 Potential Problems
- 10 More Than One Electron
- 11 Scattering Theory
- 12 Electrons and Photons
- 13 Superconductivity
- Appendix A The Uncertainty Principle
- Appendix B The Confluent Hypergeometric Function
- Appendix C Spherical Harmonics
- Appendix D Unit Systems
- Appendix E Fundamental Constants
- References
- Index
10 - More Than One Electron
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 The Theory of Special Relativity
- 2 Aspects of Angular Momentum
- 3 Particles of Spin Zero
- 4 The Dirac Equation
- 5 Free Particles/Antiparticles
- 6 Symmetries and Operators
- 7 Separating Particles from Antiparticles
- 8 One-Electron Atoms
- 9 Potential Problems
- 10 More Than One Electron
- 11 Scattering Theory
- 12 Electrons and Photons
- 13 Superconductivity
- Appendix A The Uncertainty Principle
- Appendix B The Confluent Hypergeometric Function
- Appendix C Spherical Harmonics
- Appendix D Unit Systems
- Appendix E Fundamental Constants
- References
- Index
Summary
With the exception of the latter half of chapter 6 we have, up to this point, been discussing single-particle quantum mechanics. This is easy (although you may not think so). One can certainly gain a lot of insight and understanding from a single-particle theory. However, in real life there are very few (no) situations in physics in which a single-particle theory is able to paint the whole picture. Any real physical process involves the interaction of many particles. In fact even that is a vast simplification. Really any physical process involves the interaction of all particles. Even the gravitational attraction due to an electron at the other end of the universe is felt by an electron on earth.
To describe all particles in a calculation is, of course, absurd. You would have to include the particles of the paper you are writing the calculation down on and the particles in your brain thinking about the many-body problem. However, many-body theory on a more limited scale is feasible. In this chapter we discuss two ways of going beyond the one-electron approximation. Actually, we are not going very far beyond the one-electron approximation and you will see what is meant by that soon.
This chapter is essentially divided into two halves.
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- Information
- Relativistic Quantum MechanicsWith Applications in Condensed Matter and Atomic Physics, pp. 317 - 406Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998