Wave mechanics of the hydrogen atom

Abstract: The hydrogen atom is a system amenable to an exact treatment within Schroedinger's formulation of quantum mechanics according to coordinates in four systems -- spherical polar, paraboloidal, ellipsoidal and spheroconical coordinates; the latter solution is reported for the first time. Applications of these solutions include angular momenta, a quantitative calculation of the absorption spectrum and accurate plots of surfaces of amplitude functions. The shape of an amplitude function, and even the quantum numbers in a particular set to specify such an individual function, depend on the coordinates in a particular chosen system, and are therefore artefacts of that particular coordinate representation within wave mechanics. All discussion of atomic or molecular properties based on such shapes or quantum numbers therefore lacks general significance