Electrostatic interaction inside and outside the source

In summary, the conversation discusses the calculation of electrostatic interaction between an electron and a nucleus, taking into account the possibility of the electron being inside the nucleus. The resulting integral includes both the electron and nuclear coordinates, as well as the nuclear radius. To simplify the function, it can be expanded using Legendre polynomials, with the smaller coordinate in the numerator.
  • #1
kelly0303
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Hello! I want to get the electrostatic interaction (between and electron and a nucleus), while accounting for the fact that the electron can also be inside the nucleus (e.g. in an S##_{1/2}## state). I ended up with this double integral:

$$\int_{r_e=0}^{r_e=\infty}\int_{r_n=0}^{r_n=R}\frac{\rho(r_n)}{|r_e-r_n|}d^3r_ed^3r_n$$

where ##r_e## and ##r_n## are the electron and nuclear coordinates and ##R## is the nuclear radius. Please note that we are not necessarily assuming that the nucleus is a perfect sphere (although it is usually very close to it). How can I expand the ##\frac{1}{|r_e-r_n|}## and get this into a simpler form that I can also truncate as needed? Thank you!
 
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  • #2
That function is expanded in Legendre polynomials as
$$\frac{1}{|{\bf r}-{\bf r'}|}=\sum_l\frac{r'^l}{r^{l+1}}P_l(\cos\theta)$$,
with the smaller r in the numerator.
 
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