Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-quantum-mechanics-quantum-theory-and-quantum-computers-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2010/a/2/solution

For bound hydrogen atom states, the radial wave function is regular and finite at the origin, and decays at infinity so that . Equivalently the reduced radial function has and is square integrable on the half-line. A singular branch is not an admissible regular Coulomb eigenfunction; its derivative energy diverges and it introduces an origin singularity absent from the Hamiltonian domain.
Write , so . Multiplication by turns the radial equation into
Since and , substitution gives
Choose to remove the constant coefficient and factor out the decaying exponential. For , the lowest power has coefficient , so . The behavior would give , violating regularity; choose .
Matching successive powers then yields
A nonterminating tail eventually has one sign, and its coefficient ratio is asymptotic to . More precisely, for any , the ratio is eventually at least . Its same-sign tail consequently dominates a positive constant times the exponential series of rate , up to finitely many terms. The factor cannot then make decay. Thus square integrability forces termination.
If the last nonzero term is , termination requires . Therefore
For , , is proportional to , and
The radial volume element is , so the mean radius is the ratio of the radius-weighted norm integral to the norm integral. With , the common angular and normalization factors cancel:
In the ground state .

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