Answer to Question #88719 in Quantum Mechanics for Sridhar

Question

Hydrogen atom problem with one electron moving around the nucleus can be treated as
1)gravitational interaction
2)Central force problem
3)harmonic oscillator
4)square well potential problem

Answer 1

The problem of a hydrogen atom (as well as hydrogen-like ions) is a well-known particular case of the so-called two-body problem. It can be shown that for a system consisting of two particles which interaction (i.e., potential energy) depends on the interparticle distance only, by choosing the new set of coordinates the problem can be deduced to the problem of motion of the effective particle (\mu-particle with the reduced mass) in a central potential.

Answer: 2) central force problem