A minimum principle for atomic systems allowing the use of discontinuous wave functions

In this paper a variational principle proposed by Hall [1] is shown to be a minimum principle for coulombic systems. Into this principle it is possible to admit a larger class of trial wave functions than is possible in the conventional variational treatment, including wave functions with discontinuities. It is further shown that the upper bounds given by this treatment are always at least as good as that given by the Rayleigh–Ritz method.

The theory is then applied to the hydrogen atom and upper bounds to the energy are calculated for various “cutoff” wave functions. It is usually possible to define an optimum “cut off” distance which minimizes the upper bound.