Boundary conditions effects on the ground state of a two-electron atom in a vacuum cavity

Abstract

The ground state properties of the two-electron atom with atomic number $Z\geq 2$ in the spherical vacuum cavity with general boundary conditions of "not going out" are studied. It is shown that for certain parameters of the cavity such atom could either decay into the one-electron atom with the same atomic number and an electron or be in stable state with the binding and ionization energies several times bigger than the same energies of the free atom. By analogy with the Wigner-Seitz model of metallic bonding, the possibility of the existence of such effects on the lattice formed by the vacuum cavities filled with the two-electron atoms of the same type is discussed.