Variation and Series Approach to the Thomas-Fermi Equation

Abstract

The Thomas - Fermi equation describing the screening of the Coulomb potential inside heavy neutral atoms is reconsidered. An accurate representation for its numerical solution was obtained by means of the variational principle. The proposed new solution has more precise asymptotic behaviour at large distances from the origin and allows us to obtain the exact value of the initial slope. The obtained new variational solution can also be developed in power series similar to the Baker's ones but more precise even than some series solutions that have been recently obtained within the homotopy analysis method and a modified variational method.