The 'Quantal Newtonian' First Law: A Complementary Perspective to the Stationary-state Quantum Theory of Electrons

Authors

Viraht Sahni, CUNY Brooklyn CollegeFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-5-2022

Abstract

A complementary perspective to the Göttingen-Copenhagen interpretation of stationary-state quantum theory of electrons in an electromagnetic field is described. The perspective, derived from Schrödinger-Pauli theory, is that of the individual electron via its equation of motion or ‘Quantal Newtonian’ First Law. The Law is in terms of ‘classical’ fields experienced by each electron: the sum of the external and internal fields vanishes. The external field is a sum of the electrostatic and Lorentz fields. The internal field is a sum of fields’ representative of Pauli and Coulomb correlations; kinetic effects; electron density; and internal magnetic component. The energy is obtained from these fields. The sources of the fields are expectation values of Hermitian operators. The perspective is elucidated by application to quantum dots in a magnetic field in a ground, excited singlet and triplet states. The relationship of the perspective to Quantal and traditional density functional theories is briefly explained.

Comments

This is the author's accepted manuscript of an article originally published in ChemPhysChem, available at DOI: 10.1002/cphc.202200160.