Spin-polarized hydrogen, deuterium, and tritium: I. Ground-state energy calculated by a lowest order constrained-variation method

Abstract

The ground-state energy of spin-polarized hydrogen, deuterium, and tritium is calculated by means of a modified variational lowest order constrained-variation method, and the calculations are done for five different two-body potentials. Spin-polarized H↓ is not self-bound according to our theoretical results for the ground-state binding energy. For spin-polarized D↓, however, we obtain theoretical results for the ground-state binding energy per particle from −0.42 K at an equilibrium particle density of 0.25 σ−3 or a molar volume of 121 cm3/mol to + 0.32 K at an equilibrium particle density of 0.21 σ−3 or a molar volume of 142 cm3/mol, where σ = 3.69 Å (1 Å = 10−10 m). It is, therefore, not clear whether spin-polarized deuterium should be self-bound or not. For spin-polarized T↓, we obtain theoretical results for the ground-state binding energy per particle from −4.73 K at an equilibrium particle density of 0.41 σ−3 or a molar volume of 74 cm3/mol to −1.21 K at an equilibrium particle density of 0.28 σ−3 or a molar volume of 109 cm3/mol.