Van der Waals forces between Hydrogen atoms

Abstract

Interactions between hydrogen atoms separated by a distance much larger than their radius will be studied in this essay. It will be done by calculating the energy of an isolated system in which there are only two atoms. In order to nd the non-trivial result perturbation theory will be used and we will deduce the interaction by interpreting the resulting energy. Afterwards, another scenario with a first excited hydrogen atom and a ground one will be studied and we will compare both results. Since the 2p orbital does not have spherical symmetry, a stronger interaction will be found. Finally we will cover some particles which may have similar interactions when put in the same scenario and, lastly we will study the results collected through the paper