Schrödinger solution for the Morse oscillator
DOI: 10.1063/1.2963024
In his review of Ilya Kaplan’s book, Intermolecular Interactions: Physical Picture, Computational Methods, and Model Potentials (Physics Today, July 2007, page 64 ), Lucjan Piela criticizes Kaplan for saying that the well-known solution of the Schrödinger equation for the Morse oscillator is approximate. The reviewer says it is exact. Actually, Kaplan is correct. The solution corresponds to an unphysical boundary condition that the wavefunction vanishes at an internuclear distance of minus infinity. The exact solution for a diatomic molecule would correspond to the wavefunction vanishing at the origin. The difference is large enough that it needs to be considered in practical work, especially for the hydrogen molecule.
More about the authors
Donald G. Truhlar, (truhlar@umn.edu) University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, US .
