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Concept
Hydrogen-like atom
Summary
A hydrogen-like atom (or hydrogenic atom) is any atom or ion with a single valence electron. These atoms are isoelectronic with hydrogen. Examples of hydrogen-like atoms include, but are not limited to, hydrogen itself, all alkali metals such as Rb and Cs, singly ionized alkaline earth metals such as Ca+ and Sr+ and other ions such as He+, Li2+, and Be3+ and isotopes of any of the above. A hydrogen-like atom includes a positively charged core consisting of the atomic nucleus and any core electrons as well as a single valence electron. Because helium is common in the universe, the spectroscopy of singly ionized helium is important in EUV astronomy, for example, of DO white dwarf stars.
The non-relativistic Schrödinger equation and relativistic Dirac equation for the hydrogen atom can be solved analytically, owing to the simplicity of the two-particle physical system. The one-electron wave function solutions are referred to as hydrogen-like atomic orbitals. Hydrogen-like atoms are of importance because their corresponding orbitals bear similarity to the hydrogen atomic orbitals.
Other systems may also be referred to as "hydrogen-like atoms", such as muonium (an electron orbiting an antimuon), positronium (an electron and a positron), certain exotic atoms (formed with other particles), or Rydberg atoms (in which one electron is in such a high energy state that it sees the rest of the atom effectively as a point charge).
In the solution to the Schrödinger equation, which is non-relativistic, hydrogen-like atomic orbitals are eigenfunctions of the one-electron angular momentum operator L and its z component Lz. A hydrogen-like atomic orbital is uniquely identified by the values of the principal quantum number n, the angular momentum quantum number l, and the magnetic quantum number m. The energy eigenvalues do not depend on l or m, but solely on n. To these must be added the two-valued spin quantum number ms = ±, setting the stage for the Aufbau principle. This principle restricts the allowed values of the four quantum numbers in electron configurations of more-electron atoms.
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