The Hydrogen Atom: a Review on the Birth of Modern Quantum Mechanics

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to retrace the steps that were made by scientists of XX century, like Bohr, Schrodinger, Heisenberg, Pauli, Dirac, for the formulation of what today represents the modern quantum mechanics and that, within two decades, put in question the classical physics. In this context, the study of the electronic structure of hydrogen atom has been the main starting point for the formulation of the theory and, till now, remains the only real case for which the quantum equation of motion can be solved exactly. The results obtained by each theory will be discussed critically, highlighting limits and potentials that allowed the further development of the quantum theory.