Day 491: Helium Atom Setup

Learning Objectives

• •**Write** the complete Hamiltonian for helium including all terms
• •**Identify** why the electron-electron repulsion prevents exact solution
• •**Apply** the independent particle approximation to estimate ground state energy
• •**Calculate** the zeroth-order energy and compare with experiment
• •**Explain** why screening effects make the approximation poor
• •**Set up** the framework for perturbation and variational treatments

Today's Schedule (7 hours)