Hartree atomic units
The Hartree atomic units are a system of natural units of measurement which is especially convenient for atomic physics and computational chemistry calculations. They are named after the physicist Douglas Hartree.[1] By definition, the following four fundamental physical constants may each be expressed as the numeric value 1 multiplied by a coherent unit of this system:
- Reduced Planck constant: , also known as the atomic unit of action[2]
- Elementary charge: , also known as the atomic unit of charge[3]
- Bohr radius: , also known as the atomic unit of length[4][5]
- Electron mass: , also known as the atomic unit of mass[6][7]
Atomic units are often abbreviated "a.u." or "au", not to be confused with the same abbreviation used also for astronomical units, arbitrary units, and absorbance units in other contexts.
Defining constants
Each unit in this system can be expressed as a product of powers of four physical constants without a multiplying constant. This makes it a coherent system of units, as well as making the numerical values of the defining constants in atomic units equal to unity.
Name | Symbol | Value in SI units |
---|---|---|
reduced Planck constant | 1.054571817...×10−34 J⋅s[8] | |
elementary charge | 1.602176634×10−19 C[9] | |
Bohr radius | 5.29177210903(80)×10−11 m[10] | |
electron rest mass | 9.1093837015(28)×10−31 kg[11] |
As of the 2019 redefinition of the SI base units, the elementary charge and the Planck constant (and consequently also the reduced Planck constant ) are defined as having an exact numerical values in SI units.
Five symbols are commonly used as units in this system, only four of them being independent:[12]: 94–95
Dimension | Symbol | Definition |
---|---|---|
action | ||
electric charge | ||
length | ||
mass | ||
energy |
Units
Below are listed units that can be derived in the system. A few are given names, as indicated in the table.
Atomic unit of | Name | Expression | Value in SI units | Other equivalents |
---|---|---|---|---|
1st hyperpolarizability | 3.2063613061(15)×10−53 C3⋅m3⋅J−2[13] | |||
2nd hyperpolarizability | 6.2353799905(38)×10−65 C4⋅m4⋅J−3[14] | |||
action | 1.054571817...×10−34 J⋅s[15] | |||
charge | 1.602176634×10−19 C[16] | |||
charge density | 1.08120238457(49)×1012 C⋅m−3[17] | |||
current | 6.623618237510(13)×10−3 A[18] | |||
electric dipole moment | 8.4783536255(13)×10−30 C⋅m[19] | ≘ 2.541746473 D | ||
electric field | 5.14220674763(78)×1011 V⋅m−1[20] | 5.14220674763(78) GV⋅cm−1, 51.4220674763(78) V⋅Å−1 | ||
electric field gradient | 9.7173624292(29)×1021 V⋅m−2[21] | |||
electric polarizability | 1.64877727436(50)×10−41 C2⋅m2⋅J−1[22] | |||
electric potential | 27.211386245988(53) V[23] | |||
electric quadrupole moment | 4.4865515246(14)×10−40 C⋅m2[24] | |||
energy | hartree | 4.3597447222071(85)×10−18 J[25] | , , 27.211386245988(53) eV | |
force | 8.2387234983(12)×10−8 N[26] | 82.387 nN, 51.421 eV·Å−1 | ||
length | bohr | 5.29177210903(80)×10−11 m[27] | , 0.529177210903(80) Å | |
magnetic dipole moment | 1.85480201566(56)×10−23 J⋅T−1[28] | |||
magnetic flux density | 2.35051756758(71)×105 T[29] | ≘ 2.35051756758(71)×109 G | ||
magnetizability | 7.8910366008(48)×10−29 J⋅T−2[30] | |||
mass | 9.1093837015(28)×10−31 kg[31] | |||
momentum | 1.99285191410(30)×10−24 kg·m·s−1[32] | |||
permittivity | 1.11265005545(17)×10−10 F⋅m−1[33] | |||
pressure | 2.9421015697(13)×1013 Pa | |||
irradiance | 6.4364099007(19)×1019 W⋅m−2 | |||
time | 2.4188843265857(47)×10−17 s[34] | |||
velocity | 2.18769126364(33)×106 m⋅s−1[35] |
Here,
- is the speed of light
- is the vacuum permittivity
- is the Rydberg constant
- is the Planck constant
- is the fine-structure constant
- is the Bohr magneton
- ≘ denotes correspondence between quantities since equality does not apply.
Use and notation
Atomic units, like SI units, have a unit of mass, a unit of length, and so on. However, the use and notation is somewhat different from SI.
Suppose a particle with a mass of m has 3.4 times the mass of electron. The value of m can be written in three ways:
- "". This is the clearest notation (but least common), where the atomic unit is included explicitly as a symbol.[36]
- "" ("a.u." means "expressed in atomic units"). This notation is ambiguous: Here, it means that the mass m is 3.4 times the atomic unit of mass. But if a length L were 3.4 times the atomic unit of length, the equation would look the same, "" The dimension must be inferred from context.[36]
- "". This notation is similar to the previous one, and has the same dimensional ambiguity. It comes from formally setting the atomic units to 1, in this case , so .[37][38]
Physical constants
Dimensionless physical constants retain their values in any system of units. Of note is the fine-structure constant , which appears in expressions as a consequence of the choice of units. For example, the numeric value of the speed of light, expressed in atomic units, has a value related to the fine structure constant.
Name | Symbol/Definition | Value in atomic units |
---|---|---|
speed of light | ||
classical electron radius | ||
reduced Compton wavelength of the electron |
ƛe | |
Bohr radius | ||
proton mass |
Bohr model in atomic units
Atomic units are chosen to reflect the properties of electrons in atoms. This is particularly clear from the classical Bohr model of the hydrogen atom in its ground state. The ground state electron orbiting the hydrogen nucleus has (in the classical Bohr model):
- Mass = 1 a.u. of mass
- Orbital radius = 1 a.u. of length
- Orbital velocity = 1 a.u. of velocity
- Orbital period = 2π a.u. of time
- Orbital angular velocity = 1 radian per a.u. of time
- Orbital angular momentum = 1 a.u. of momentum
- Ionization energy = 1/2 a.u. of energy
- Electric field (due to nucleus) = 1 a.u. of electric field
- Electrical attractive force (due to nucleus) = 1 a.u. of force
Non-relativistic quantum mechanics in atomic units
In the context of atomic physics, nondimensionalization using the defining constants of the Hartree atomic system can be a convenient shortcut, since it can be thought of as eliminating these constants wherever they occur. Nondimesionalization involves a substitution of variables that results in equations in which these constants (, , and ) "have been set to 1".[39] Though the variables are no longer the original variables, the same symbols and names are typically used.
For example, the Schrödinger equation for an electron with quantities that use SI units is
The same equation with corresponding nondimensionalized quantity definitions is
For the special case of the electron around a hydrogen atom, the Hamiltonian with SI quantities is:
while the corresponding nondimensionalized equation is
Comparison with Planck units
Both Planck units and atomic units are derived from certain fundamental properties of the physical world, and have little anthropocentric arbitrariness, but do still involve some arbitrary choices in terms of the defining constants. Atomic units were designed for atomic-scale calculations in the present-day universe, while Planck units are more suitable for quantum gravity and early-universe cosmology. Both atomic units and Planck units use the reduced Planck constant. Beyond this, Planck units use the two fundamental constants of general relativity and cosmology: the gravitational constant and the speed of light in vacuum, . Atomic units, by contrast, use the mass and charge of the electron, and, as a result, the speed of light in atomic units is The orbital velocity of an electron around a small atom is of the order of 1 atomic unit, so the discrepancy between the velocity units in the two systems reflects the fact that electrons orbit small atoms by around 2 orders of magnitude more slowly than the speed of light.
There are much larger differences for some other units. For example, the unit of mass in atomic units is the mass of an electron, while the unit of mass in Planck units is the Planck mass, which is 22 orders of magnitude larger than the atomic unit of mass. Similarly, there are many orders of magnitude separating the Planck units of energy and length from the corresponding atomic units.
See also
Notes and references
- Shull, H.; Hall, G. G. (1959). "Atomic Units". Nature. 184 (4698): 1559. Bibcode:1959Natur.184.1559S. doi:10.1038/1841559a0. S2CID 23692353.
- ^ Hartree, D. R. (1928). "The Wave Mechanics of an Atom with a Non-Coulomb Central Field. Part I. Theory and Methods". Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society. Vol. 24, no. 1. Cambridge University Press. pp. 89–110. Bibcode:1928PCPS...24...89H. doi:10.1017/S0305004100011919.
- ^ "2018 CODATA Value: atomic unit of action". The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty. NIST. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-15.
- ^ "2018 CODATA Value: atomic unit of charge". The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty. NIST. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-15.
- ^ "2018 CODATA Value: atomic unit of length". The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty. NIST. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
- ^ One source gives the Coulomb constant in place of the Bohr radius as a defining constant: Paul Quincey, Peter J Mohr and William D Phillips (2019), "Angles are inherently neither length ratios nor dimensionless" (PDF), Metrologia, 56 (4): 043001, arXiv:1909.08389, Bibcode:2019Metro..56d3001Q, doi:10.1088/1681-7575/ab27d7, S2CID 198428043,
In these units, me, e, ħ and 1/4πε0 are all set equal to unity.
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link) - ^ "2018 CODATA Value: atomic unit of mass". The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty. NIST. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-15.
- ^ Not to be confused with the unified atomic mass unit.
- ^ "2018 CODATA Value: reduced Planck constant". The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty. NIST. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-28.
- ^ "2018 CODATA Value: elementary charge". The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty. NIST. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-05-20.
- ^ "2018 CODATA Value: Bohr radius". The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty. NIST. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-05-20.
- ^ "2018 CODATA Value: electron mass". The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty. NIST. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-05-20.
- ^ "E.R. Cohen, T. Cvitas, J.G. Frey, B. Holmström, K. Kuchitsu, R. Marquardt, I. Mills, F. Pavese, M. Quack, J. Stohner, H.L. Strauss, M. Takami, and A.J. Thor, "Quantities, Units and Symbols in Physical Chemistry", IUPAC Green Book, 3rd Edition, 2nd Printing, IUPAC & RSC Publishing, Cambridge (2008)" (PDF). p. 4. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-12-20. Retrieved 2019-05-24.
- ^ "2018 CODATA Value: atomic unit of 1st hyperpolarizability". The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty. NIST. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
- ^ "2018 CODATA Value: atomic unit of 2nd hyperpolarizability". The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty. NIST. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
- ^ "2018 CODATA Value: atomic unit of action". The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty. NIST. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
- ^ "2018 CODATA Value: atomic unit of charge". The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty. NIST. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
- ^ "2018 CODATA Value: atomic unit of charge density". The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty. NIST. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
- ^ "2018 CODATA Value: atomic unit of current". The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty. NIST. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
- ^ "2018 CODATA Value: atomic unit of electric dipole moment". The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty. NIST. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
- ^ "2018 CODATA Value: atomic unit of electric field". The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty. NIST. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
- ^ "2018 CODATA Value: atomic unit of electric field gradient". The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty. NIST. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
- ^ "2018 CODATA Value: atomic unit of electric polarizability". The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty. NIST. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
- ^ "2018 CODATA Value: atomic unit of electric potential". The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty. NIST. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
- ^ "2018 CODATA Value: atomic unit of electric quadrupole moment". The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty. NIST. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
- ^ "2018 CODATA Value: atomic unit of energy". The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty. NIST. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
- ^ "2018 CODATA Value: atomic unit of force". The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty. NIST. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
- ^ "2018 CODATA Value: atomic unit of length". The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty. NIST. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
- ^ "2018 CODATA Value: atomic unit of magnetic dipole moment". The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty. NIST. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
- ^ "2018 CODATA Value: atomic unit of magnetic flux density". The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty. NIST. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
- ^ "2018 CODATA Value: atomic unit of magnetizability". The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty. NIST. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
- ^ "2018 CODATA Value: atomic unit of mass". The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty. NIST. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
- ^ "2018 CODATA Value: atomic unit of momentum". The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty. NIST. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
- ^ "2018 CODATA Value: atomic unit of permittivity". The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty. NIST. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
- ^ "2018 CODATA Value: atomic unit of time". The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty. NIST. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
- ^ "2018 CODATA Value: atomic unit of velocity". The NIST Reference on Constants, Units, and Uncertainty. NIST. 20 May 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-31.
- ^ a b Pilar, Frank L. (2001). Elementary Quantum Chemistry. Dover Publications. p. 155. ISBN 978-0-486-41464-5.
- ^ Bishop, David M. (1993). Group Theory and Chemistry. Dover Publications. p. 217. ISBN 978-0-486-67355-4.
- ^ Drake, Gordon W. F. (2006). Springer Handbook of Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics (2nd ed.). Springer. p. 5. ISBN 978-0-387-20802-2.
- ^ McQuarrie, Donald A. (2008). Quantum Chemistry (2nd ed.). New York, NY: University Science Books. p. 489.