Hydrogen atom
A hydrogen atom is an atom of the chemical element hydrogen.
Its parts are a single negatively-charged electron that circles a single positively-charged nucleus of the hydrogen atom. The nucleus of hydrogen consists of only a single proton (in the case of hydrogen-1 or protium), or it may also include one or more neutrons (giving deuterium, tritium, and other isotopes). The electron is bound to the nucleus by the Coulomb force. Hydrogen-1, also known as protium or "light hydrogen" is the main component of natural hydrogen.
Hydrogen Atom Media
Depiction of a hydrogen atom showing the diameter as about twice the Bohr model radius. (Image not to scale)
3D illustration of the eigenstate \psi_{4, 3, 1}. Electrons in this state are 45% likely to be found within the solid body shown.
Probability densities through the xz-plane for the electron at different quantum numbers (ℓ, across top; n, down side; m = 0)
Related pages
References
- Griffiths, David J. (1995). Introduction to Quantum Mechanics. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-111892-7.
Section 4.2 deals with the hydrogen atom specifically, but all of Chapter 4 is relevant.
- Bransden, B.H.; C.J. Joachain (1983). Physics of Atoms and Molecules. London: Longman. ISBN 0-582-44401-2.
Other websites
- Physics of hydrogen atom on Scienceworld
- Visualizing Atomic Orbitals
- Applet which allows viewing of all sorts of hydrogenic orbitals
- The Hydrogen Atom: Wave Functions, Probability Density "pictures"
- Basic Quantum Mechanics of the Hydrogen Atom Archived 2010-06-19 at the Wayback Machine
