Quantum chaos of the hydrogen atom in a generalized van der Waals potential

The quantum manifestations of chaos in the hydrogen atom in a generalized van der Waals potential, which includes the celebrated quadratic-Zeeman-effect problem under an appropriate limiting condition, are studied in detail. Using group-theoretical methods, we derive the matrix elements in an algebraic form. As the Hamiltonian is scale invariant, we introduce an appropriate scaling parameter. By considering the unperturbed hydrogen-atom problem, we demonstrate that suitable changes in the scaling parameter stabilize different parts of the spectrum depending upon the parameter’s value. For the present generalized van der Waals potential problem, we utilize this property of the scaling parameter effectively to improve the convergence of eigenvalues while diagonalizing the matrices for various parametric values. Then, we vary one of the system parameters in the range [0,3], study the level statistics, and observe a GOE-Poisson-Brody-Poisson-Brody-Poisson-GOE-type (where GOE means Gaussian orthogonal ensemble) of transition regime hitherto unidentified in any of the perturbed hydrogen-atom problems. Our results are not only in agreement with random-matrix-theory predictions but also justify classical and semiclassical investigations.