ABSTRACT
In the previous chapter we saw that the Ritz method can give very accurate results for the ground state energy of two-electron atoms, and with sufficient labor can be extended to yield good results for some excited states. The variational wave function is also determined, although it is not expected to be as accurate as the energy eigenvalue. For complex atoms, it is evident that this approach would become prohibitively cumbersome if carried out to a satisfactory degree of accuracy. For these complex atoms there exists the self-consistent field method, which we shall study in the present chapter. This method is useful for obtaining energy levels and wave functions for atoms.
