Hydrogen atom wave function and eigen energy in the Rindler space

Abstract

We study the hydrogen atom eigenstate energy and wave function in the Rindler space. The probability distribution is tilted because the electric field of the nucleus is no longer spherically symmetric. The hydrogen atom therefore cannot be treated exactly in the same way as what it is in an inertial frame. We also find that if the external force accelerates only the nucleus and then the nucleus accelerates its surrounding electrons through electromagnetic force, the electrons can tunnel through the local energy gap and split the hydrogen atom into an ion. This is similar to what one expects from the Stark effect. However, the critical acceleration is about $3\times 10^{22}m/s^2$. It is well beyond the gravitational acceleration on a regular star surface.

8 figures, 8 pages, accepted by Physics Letters A

References in corpus (8)

• A Rigorous Derivation of Electromagnetic Self-force
• Quantum electrodynamics of accelerated atoms in free space and in confined cavities
• van der Waals Interaction Energy Between Two Atoms Moving With Uniform Acceleration
• The Energy-Level Shifts of a Stationary Hydrogen Atom in Static External Gravitational Field with Schwarzschild Geometry
• Gravitational Corrections to the Energy-Levels of a Hydrogen Atom
• Static interactions and stability of matter in Rindler space
• Schrödinger Equation of a particle in an Uniformly Accelerated Frame and the Possibility of a New kind of Quanta
• Some Theoretical Aspects of Quantum Mechanical Equations in Rindler Space

Cited by in corpus (5)

• A Wavefunction Description for a Localized Quantum Particle in Curved Spacetimes
• One-electron atoms in screened modified gravity
• Serious limitations of the strong equivalence principle
• Non-Gaussian Saha's ionization in Rindler spacetime and the equivalence principle
• Atomic stability and the quantum mass equivalence