Helium- and Lithium-like ionic sequences: Critical charges

Abstract

In non-relativistic quantum mechanics we study the Coulomb systems of infinitely massive center of charge Z and two-three electrons: $(Z,e,e)$ and $(Z,e,e,e)$. It is shown that in both cases the total energy curve in $Z$ is smooth, without any visible irregularities. Thus, for both systems the physical integer charges $Z=1,2,...$ do not play a distinguished role as would be associated with charge quantization. By definition, a critical charge $Z_{cr}$ is a charge which separates a domain of the existence of bound states from a domain of unbound ones (continuum). For both systems the critical charges are found, $Z_{cr,2e}=0.91085$ and $Z_{cr,3e}=2.009$, respectively. Based on numerical analysis, the Puiseux expansion in fractional powers of $(Z-Z_{cr})$ is constructed for both systems. Our results indicate the existence of a square-root branch point singularity at $Z_{cr}$ with exponent 3/2. A connection between the critical charge and the radius of convergence of 1/Z-expansion is briefly discussed.