Nuclear critical charge for two-electron ion in Lagrange mesh method

Abstract

The Schroedinger equation for two electrons in the field of a charged fixed center $Z$ is solved with the Lagrange mesh method for charges close to the critical charge $Z_{cr}$. We confirm the value of the nuclear critical charge $Z_{cr}$ recently calculated in Estienne et al. {\em Phys. Rev. Lett. \bf 112}, 173001 (2014) to 11 decimal digits using an inhomogeneous (non-uniform) three-dimensional lattice of size $70 \times 70 \times 20$. We show that the ground state energy for H$^-$ is accurate to 14 decimals on the lattice $50 \times 50 \times 40$ in comparison with the highly accurate result by Nakashima-Nakatsuji, {\it J. Chem. Phys. \bf 127}, 224104 (2007).