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Topic: Problem with variation principle  (Read 3117 times)

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Offline FeLiXe

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Problem with variation principle
« on: February 26, 2007, 01:37:33 PM »

seems to be a a continuously differentiable, normalisable function (so there should be no problem with the variation principle)

if I calculate the expected value of the hydrogen Hamilton operator, I get an energy of -1.20 Hartree. That is much lower than that of the 1s function (-.5) how can that be?

If I split it up I get a modest value for the potential energy: -0.682

and then I have a negative(!) kinetic energy of -0.519.

How does that make sense? How can I have negative kinetic energy?

Thanks a lot for any help or ideas what could be wrong. I thought of it for quite a while and I couldn't find anything.
Math and alcohol don't mix, so... please, don't drink and derive!

Offline FeLiXe

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Re: Problem with variation principle
« Reply #1 on: February 28, 2007, 05:58:51 AM »
I think I know what's wrong: my "function" is not unique at the origin. I guess that would do the trick
Math and alcohol don't mix, so... please, don't drink and derive!

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