Excited States

Hydrogen excited states differ in energy by

<13.6 eV
Tiny compared to hydrogen mass of 939 MeV
i.e. the binding energy is tiny compared to the rest
mass
All excitations of hydrogen atom are still called
states of the hydrogen atom
As we will see, strong excited states have
energy levels the same order as rest mass
Should we regard these as excitations, or
different states?
The consensus is that we call them different

particles
QM Reminder: Central Potentials
For reasonable systems can write

For spherically symmetric potentials, can write the

spatial wave function as

Schroedinger equation, separated thus, gives Ym for

angular part, and for radial part:

Solution for u(r) depends on V(r)

Set of solutions, in turn, determine spectrum of E
Positronium
In principle no different from hydrogen at
lowest order

Replace me in hydrogen atom with reduced

mass

=me/2 (mechanics class!)

Perturbations are somewhat different (will return

to this again someday) in fine, hyperfine structure
Strongonium
Cheesy strong-force model analagous to EM

Ds~0.2 (>>1/137)
F0=900 MeV/fm
(=150,000 Newtons, or 16 tons!)

Recall: only quarks feel strong force

Schroedinger equation for this potential not
analytically soluble
But can be done numerically
This potential is qualitatively different from Coulomb
 Confining potential
Pull the two particles out to infinity (as per our definition of binding
energy)
F0r term means the energy of this, relative to the bound state, is
actually infinite
This is the notion of confinement: unlike hydrogen atom, where you
could in principle deconfine the electron with a 13.6 eV photon, now
there is no energy which deconfines the two
Bizarre dynamic unfolds
Bound states have more energy than nave input masses

A wrong interpretation (that may get you through the night): a single
quark, by itself in the universe, has some finite value of energy due to
its rest mass; as soon as the second quark appears in the universe, the
total energy goes up, so that the pair radiates energy until settling into
a bound state above twice the original mass of the first quark
A slightly more correct interpretation: something like the above
happens, except for the fact that a bare quark mass is a
meaningless concept.
Even more correct: the rest mass of the first one is infinite (sorry!)
Wilczeks Nobel Lecture of this year might be a useful thing to read!
http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/hep-ph/0502113
Strongonium Levels
Analog to binding energies of hydrogen
For mq=1300 MeV (~1.5 proton masses)
Here: for varying principle quantum numbers n
No fine / hyperfine corrections for l, m

Solve nonrelativistic SE
BUT now binding energies, measured wrt 2mq, are POSITIVE
E1: +488 MeV
E2: +1015 MeV
E3: +1432 MeV
E4: +1794 MeV
Actual values (from heavy quark system)
E1: +497 MeV
E2:+1085 MeV
E3: +1430 MeV
E4: +1560 MeV
By the time we get to last two we will really need relativistic
corrections!