The Guessed Wavefunction That Binds: Heitler and London's Ansatz, Priced
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
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.
Author: Aldred, William Alexander
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7225378730