I The atomic Coulomb potential extends to infinity?

aaronll
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I'm studying nuclear physics in a text, but at one point that is said: "Both the Coulomb potential that binds the atom and the resulting electronic charge distribution extends to infinity" , I don't understand what is that "resulting electronic charge distribution extends to infinity" what they mean? ( maybe I misunderstand the phrase but i don't know)
thanks
 
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aaronll said:
I'm studying nuclear physics in a text, but at one point that is said: "Both the Coulomb potential that binds the atom and the resulting electronic charge distribution extends to infinity" , I don't understand what is that "resulting electronic charge distribution extends to infinity" what they mean? ( maybe I misunderstand the phrase but i don't know)
thanks

I assume by "charge distribution" it means the wave-function for the electron. And, theoretically the spatial wave-function for the electron is non-zero everywhere. I.e. no matter how far the distance from the nucleus, there is still a non-zero probability of detecting the electron there.

In practical terms, of course, the electron probability distribution drops off to nearly zero very quickly - of the order of magnitude of a few times the Bohr radius.
 
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PeroK said:
I assume by "charge distribution" it means the wave-function for the electron. And, theoretically the spatial wave-function for the electron is non-zero everywhere. I.e. no matter how far the distance from the nucleus, there is still a non-zero probability of detecting the electron there.

In practical terms, of course, the electron probability distribution drops off to nearly zero very quickly - of the order of magnitude of a few times the Bohr radius.
Thank you
 
Which text is this? I guess, I'll like to avoid its use ;-)).
 
vanhees71 said:
Which text is this? I guess, I'll like to avoid its use ;-)).
Is the "Introduction to Nuclear Physics" written by Kennet S. Krane, I believe is a good book
 
Yes, I like it too, but are there really such statements as that the long-ranged nature of the Coulomb potential of the nucleus in an atom were "resulting electronic charge distribution extends to infinity"? That doesn't make sense or at least hints at an pretty unusual interpretation of the (energy-eigen) wave functions of the electron(s) in atoms. It sounds something like Schrödinger's very first interpretation of his ##\psi(t,\vec{x})## before Born's probabilistic interpretation. Even then it's strange since as the hydrogen wave functions show, the bound states all fall exponentially for ##r \rightarrow \infty##, and from that the typical atomic length scales are determined by the Born radius of about ##0.5 \mathring{\text{A}}##.
 
Insights auto threads is broken atm, so I'm manually creating these for new Insight articles. Towards the end of the first lecture for the Qiskit Global Summer School 2025, Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, Olivia Lanes (Global Lead, Content and Education IBM) stated... Source: https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/quantum-entanglement-is-a-kinematic-fact-not-a-dynamical-effect/ by @RUTA
If we release an electron around a positively charged sphere, the initial state of electron is a linear combination of Hydrogen-like states. According to quantum mechanics, evolution of time would not change this initial state because the potential is time independent. However, classically we expect the electron to collide with the sphere. So, it seems that the quantum and classics predict different behaviours!
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