Hydrogen and helium atoms in strong magnetic fields

The behaviour of atoms in strong magnetic fields of the order of 106–1012 G is investigated, and ground-state energies of hydrogenlike and heliumlike atoms are calculated and compared with earlier results. For the hydrogen atom, we make a variational calculation for so-called hydrogenlike states, where we assume the solution in the direction of the field corresponds to the solution of a one-dimensional Schrödinger equation with a truncated Coulomb potential. For the helium atoms we also try a variational approach where the trial wave functions are products of single-particle "orbitals," which are mainly magnetic in their spatial form.Ground-state energies and ionization energies are tabulated for field strengths ranging from 106 to 1012 G. At 1012 G, for instance, the binding energy of a hydrogen atom is changed from −13.6 eV to approximately −150 eV, which is in reasonable agreement with other calculations. The corresponding result for the ground-state energy of a helium atom is a change from −78 eV to approximately −730 eV, also in fair agreement with other calculations. Ionization energies for the outer electron are found to be approximately 50 eV for H− atoms and 350 eV for He atoms in a magnetic field of 1012 G.