A Theory of Hartree's Atomic Fields

Abstract

In a recent communication to this Society Dr Hartree has put forward a method for calculating the field of anatom containing many electrons. Each orbit—to borrow a metaphor from the old quantum theory—is related to a wave-function Ψ which obeys Schrödinger's equation. The potential energy used in this equation is due partly to the field of the nucleus, and partly to the fields of the electrons in the other orbits. The latter are calculated upon Schrödinger's interpretation of the wave-function, that |Ψ|2 is the density of charge, measured in electronic charges per unit volume. It is not the purpose of this paper to discuss the practical methods of obtaining wave-functions which reproduce the fields from which they are derived; but to relate these wave-functions and their energy parameters to those of the accepted theory.