Photoabsorption in the One-Electron Approximation

Abstract

We consider each atomic electron in both the initial and final state of the photoabsorption process to move independently in some mean field with potential V(r). This allows approximately for the action on the electron of the nucleus and all the other electrons. The atom and residual ion wavefunctions are then antisymmetrized products (2.72) of one-electron wavefunctions φ _v (x) = φ _v (r, σ). The latter are solutions to the one-particle Schrödinger equation:

$$ \begin{array}{*{20}{l}} {{H^{(1)}}{\varphi _v}(x) = ( - \frac{\Delta }{2} - \frac{Z}{r} + W(r)){\varphi _v}(x) = {\varepsilon _v}{\varphi _v}(x)}\\ {V = - \frac{r}{Z} + W(r)} \end{array} $$

((3.1))

where the potential W(r), created by all the electrons, is assumed to be local.