Pseudopotential

Comparison of a wavefunction in the Coulomb potential of the nucleus (blue) to the one in the pseudopotential (red). The real and the pseudo wavefunction and potentials match above a certain cutoff radius .

In physics, a pseudopotential or effective potential is used as an approximation for the simplified description of complex systems. Applications include atomic physics and neutron scattering. The pseudopotential approximation was first introduced by Hans Hellmann in 1934.[1]

  1. ^ Schwerdtfeger, P. (August 2011), "The Pseudopotential Approximation in Electronic Structure Theory", ChemPhysChem, 12 (17): 3143–3155, doi:10.1002/cphc.201100387, PMID 21809427