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arxiv: quant-ph/9807073 · v2 · submitted 1998-07-27 · 🪐 quant-ph

Solution of Coulomb Path Integral in Momentum Space

classification 🪐 quant-ph
keywords spacecurvedpathsolutioncoulombfirstintegralmomentum
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The path integral for a point particle in a Coulomb potential is solved in momentum space. The solution permits us to give for the first time a negative answer to an old question of quantum mechanics in curved spaces raised in 1957 by DeWitt, whether the Hamiltonian of a particle in a curved space contains an additional term proportional to the curvature scalar $R$. We show that this would cause experimentally wrong level spacings in the hydrogen atom. Our solution also gives a first experimental confirmation of the correctness of the measure of integration in path integrals in curved space implied by a recently discovered nonholonomic mapping principle.

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