The Normal State of the Hydrogen Molecule

A simple wave function for the normal state of the hydrogen molecule, in which both the atomic and ionic configurations are taken into account, was set up and treated by a variational method. The dissociation energy was found to be 4.00 v.e. as compared to the experimental value of 4.68 v.e. and Rosen's value of 4.02 v.e. obtained by use of a function involving complicated integrals. It was found that the atomic function occurs with a coefficient 3.9 times that of the ionic function. A similar function with different screening constants for the atomic and ionic parts was also tried. It was found that the best results are obtained when these screening constants are equal. The addition of Rosen's term to the atomic-ionic function resulted in a value of 4.10 v.e. for the dissociation energy.