Dresden 2011 – scientific programme
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A: Fachverband Atomphysik
A 16: Atomic systems in external fields I
A 16.3: Talk
Wednesday, March 16, 2011, 14:30–14:45, BAR 106
Resonance wave functions located at the Stark saddle point — •Holger Cartarius1, Jörg Main2, Thorsten Losch2, and Günther Wunner2 — 1Chemical Physics Department, Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100 Rehovot, Israel — 21. Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Stuttgart , 70550 Stuttgart, Germany
The hydrogen atom in crossed static electric and magnetic fields is an important example for a quantum system accessible both in experiments and numerical calculations. Adding external fields to the Coulomb potential of the hydrogen atom opens the possibility for wave functions to be localized far away from the nucleus. In particular, the existence of resonances localized in the vicinity of the Stark saddle point predicted by simple expansions of the potential around the saddle [1] has been unclear for a long time.
We calculate quantum mechanically exact wave functions of resonances in spectra of the hydrogen atom in crossed external fields and prove the existence of the long-lived decaying quantum states localized at the Stark saddle point [2]. A spectrum of ground and excited states reproducing the nodal patterns expected from simple quadratic and cubic expansions of the potential in the vicinity of the saddle can be identified.
[1] C. W. Clark, E. Korevaar, and M. G. Littman, Phys. Rev. Lett. 54, 320 (1985)
[2] H. Cartarius, J. Main, T. Losch, and G. Wunner, Phys. Rev. A 81, 063414 (2010)