Atomic analogs of local and normal modes: The hydrogen atom in a generalized van der Waals potential

Abstract
The connection between the hydrogen atom in a generalized van der Waals potential and the notion of local and normal modes is investigated analytically and numerically. It is found that the dynamics in the hydrogenic case can be classified as local, normal, or precessional normal in a similar way to the spectroscopic description of degenerate vibrational states of a molecule. Semiclassical quantization of the system is discussed.