Solution of Coulomb Path Integral in Momentum Space
Abstract
The path integral for a point particle in a Coulomb potential is solved in momentum space. The solution permits us to give for the first time a negative answer to an old question of quantum mechanics in curved spaces raised in 1957 by DeWitt, whether the Hamiltonian of a particle in a curved space contains an additional term proportional to the curvature scalar . We show that this would cause experimentally wrong level spacings in the hydrogen atom. Our solution also gives a first experimental confirmation of the correctness of the measure of integration in path integrals in curved space implied by a recently discovered nonholonomic mapping principle.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.quant-ph/9807073,
title = {Solution of Coulomb Path Integral in Momentum Space},
author = {Hagen Kleinert},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:quant-ph/9807073},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
Author Information under http://www.physik.fu-berlin.de/~kleinert/institution.html . Latest update of paper also at http://www.physik.fu-berlin.de/~kleinert/kleiner_re/273