The Guessed Wavefunction That Binds: Heitler and London's Ansatz, Priced

In 1927 Walter Heitler and Fritz London produced the first quantum-mechanical account of the chemical bond: guess the hydrogen molecule's wavefunction as a symmetrised product of the separated atoms' undistorted 1s orbitals, and let the variational integral return the bond. I credit that paper at full strength: from one guessed form it derives both why H2 exists and why its triplet does not bind — the triplet stands, on my bench, 7.052189 eV above the separated-atom limit at the singlet's minimum — and quantum chemistry grows from it. Nothing here falsifies the method or its founding verdict. What I evaluate is the wavefunction's derivation status: no 1927 step derives the form from the molecular Schrödinger equation; the orbitals are frozen at ζ = 1 and the ionic configurations are set to coefficient zero by construction. My bench evaluates the guess in its own currency: the ansatz returns D_e = 3.170004 eV at R_e = 1.643695 a0 against the molecule's 4.746000 eV at 1.400000 a0 — a deficit of 1.575996 eV, the bond 0.243695 a0 too long — and 0.555493 of the exact bond is the symmetrisation guess itself. Counted plainly: 1 trial-wavefunction ansatz against 0 derivations in 1927. Grade: REASON FOUND / STILL TURNING — PREMISE-ONLY, explicitly not a kill and not a falsification. Program headline: vacuum catastrophe NOT SOLVED / PARTIAL, producing-count 0.

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Publication Details

Journal
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Published
2026-11-06
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.24012032
Primary Topic
Advanced Chemical Physics Studies
Type
preprint
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preprint

The Guessed Wavefunction That Binds: Heitler and London's Ansatz, Priced

William Alexander Aldred
1 links
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Advanced Chemical Physics Studies
preprint

The Guessed Wavefunction That Binds: Heitler and London's Ansatz, Priced

William Alexander Aldred
preprint en

Abstract

In 1927 Walter Heitler and Fritz London produced the first quantum-mechanical account of the chemical bond: guess the hydrogen molecule's wavefunction as a symmetrised product of the separated atoms' undistorted 1s orbitals, and let the variational integral return the bond. I credit that paper at full strength: from one guessed form it derives both why H2 exists and why its triplet does not bind — the triplet stands, on my bench, 7.052189 eV above the separated-atom limit at the singlet's minimum — and quantum chemistry grows from it. Nothing here falsifies the method or its founding verdict. What I evaluate is the wavefunction's derivation status: no 1927 step derives the form from the molecular Schrödinger equation; the orbitals are frozen at ζ = 1 and the ionic configurations are set to coefficient zero by construction. My bench evaluates the guess in its own currency: the ansatz returns D_e = 3.170004 eV at R_e = 1.643695 a0 against the molecule's 4.746000 eV at 1.400000 a0 — a deficit of 1.575996 eV, the bond 0.243695 a0 too long — and 0.555493 of the exact bond is the symmetrisation guess itself. Counted plainly: 1 trial-wavefunction ansatz against 0 derivations in 1927. Grade: REASON FOUND / STILL TURNING — PREMISE-ONLY, explicitly not a kill and not a falsification. Program headline: vacuum catastrophe NOT SOLVED / PARTIAL, producing-count 0.

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Advanced Chemical Physics Studies
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The Guessed Wavefunction That Binds: Heitler and London's Ansatz, Priced — William Alexander Aldred · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) (2026) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS