kanato & genneth:
Thanks to both of you - the picture is a lot clearer now. I'll try to repeat my understanding to see if I've absorbed it correctly: Since wavefunctions are linear things, valid ones can be superimposed to produce other equally valid wavefunctions/orbitals, and in the case...
RB98:
Thanks for the welcome, and for jumping in on this question!
The orbitals I'm referring to (do a Google search for "orbitron" for example) cannot be probability densities, since they have explicitly color-coded positive and negative regions.
Also, you use the word "amplitude"...
I’m hoping someone will help me fill in some holes in my understanding of the electronic wavefunction.
I understand the electronic wavefunction to be a *complex valued* function of the positions of all electrons in the system. But, most descriptions of atomic orbitals refer to the various...