Series-termination quantization of the Coulomb radial equation

For a radial solution regular at the origin, writing $R=e^{-\gamma r}{\sum }_{n\ge 0}{a}_n{r}^n$ givesNormalizability at infinity forces the series to terminate, so $2\gamma N=\beta$ for a positive integer $N$ and $E_N=-m{q}^4/(2{\hslash }^2{N}^2)$.

The lowest Coulomb bound-state energy is

In atomic units, use the radial trial wavefunction $\psi (r)=\max (1-r/\beta ,0)$ with $\beta >0$. Its radial norm integral is $\int r^2{\psi }^{2}dr={\beta }^3/30$, its gradient contribution is $\int r^2{\psi }^{\prime 2}dr=\beta /3$, and its Coulomb contribution is $-2\int r{\psi }^{2}dr=-{\beta }^2/6$. In the hydrogen radial Rayleigh quotient, this gives the displayed energy, minimized at $\beta =4$. It is above the exact hydrogen ground-state energy $-1/2$, as required by the quantum variational principle. The derivative jumps at $r=\beta$, but the function has a square-integrable weak first derivative and is an admissible trial for the energy quadratic form. One must use that form rather than assume that a classical second derivative exists at the join.