There is much discussion in the mathematical physics literature as well as in quantum mechanics textbooks on spherically symmetric potentials. Nevertheless, there is no consensus about the behavior of the radial function at the origin, particularly for singular potentials. A careful derivation of the radial Schrödinger equation leads to the appearance of a delta function term when the Laplace operator is written in spherical coordinates. As a result, regardless of the behavior of the potential, an additional constraint is imposed on the radial wave function in the form of a vanishing boundary condition at the origin.
Eigenfunctions and eigenvalues of the operator of the square of the angular momentum are studied. It is shown that neither from the requirement for the eigenfunctions be normalizable nor from the commutation relations it is possible to prove that the eigenvalues spectrum is a set of only integer numbers (in units = 1). We present regular, normalizable eigenfunctions with the non-integer eigenvalues thus demonstrating that a non-integer angular momentum is admissible from the theoretical viewpoint.
Singular behavior of the Laplace operator in spherical coordinates is investigated. It is shown that in course of transition to the reduced radial wave function in the Schrodinger equation there appears additional term consisting the Dirac delta function, which was unnoted during the full history of physics and mathematics. The possibility of avoiding this contribution from the reduced radial equation is discussed. It is demonstrated that for this aim the necessary and sufficient condition is requirement the fast enough falling of the wave function at the origin. The result does not depend on character of potential -is it regular or singular. The various manifestations and consequences of this observation are considered as well. The cornerstone in our approach is the natural requirement that the solution of the radial equation at the same time must obey to the full equation.
The theorem known from Pauli equation about operators that anticommute with Dirac's K-operator is generalized to the Dirac equation. By means of this theorem the operator is constructed which governs the hidden symmetry in relativistic Coulomb problem (Dirac equation). It is proved that this operator coincides with the familiar Johnson-Lippmann one and is intimately connected to the famous Laplace-Runge-Lenz (LRL) vector. Our derivation is very simple and informative. It does not require a longtime and tedious calculations, as is offten underlined in most papers.
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