Dynamic dipole polarizabilities of the ground and excited states of confined hydrogen atom computed by means of a mapped Fourier grid method

Accurate theoretical estimates of static and dynamic dipole polarizabilities are reported for the ground and excited states of hydrogen atom confined at the center of a spherical box with impenetrable walls using a novel theoretical algorithm that combines the variational-perturbation approach with an appropriately adapted mapped Fourier grid method and uniformly maintains the numerical accuracy. A variation of computed polarizabilities is observed as a function of the number of grid points. However, rapid convergence to their correct values, even far into the anomalous dispersion region, is achieved by an extrapolation procedure to the limit of an infinitely large number of grid points using a small number of the lowest-order Pade approximants. It is shown that dipole polarizabilities strongly depend upon the electronic state and the radius of confinement. In particular, the static polarizability of 2s state changes sign under strong confinement. (C) 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.