Asma Aktar Shaikh Submitted To:

College Roll No.: 2019507 Dr. Pooja Sharma

University Roll No.: 19066567007 Assistant Professor
Course: B.Sc. (Hons.) Physics Department of Physics
Semester: V SRCASW, University of Delhi
Coulomb’s Law
Coulomb's law, or Coulomb's inverse-square law,

is an experimental law of physics that quantifies the amount of force between two stationary
electric charges. The electric force between charged bodies at rest is conventionally called
electrostatic force or Coulomb force.

Coulomb Potential
The Coulomb Potential (also called the electric field potential, it’s the potential due to the presence of electrostatic or
Coulomb Force) is the amount of work done against electrostatic force to move a unit of electric charge from a point at
infinity to the specific point in an electric field with negligible acceleration to avoid producing kinetic energy or radiation by
test charge.
The electric potential arising from a point charge Q, at a distance r from the charge is
Potential Energy

A point charge q in the electric field of another charge Q

At some places, like in Quantum Mechanics for example, the terms Potential and Potential Energy, although being
different physical quantities, are used interchangeably, mostly in place of ‘potential energy’ we just use the term
‘potential’, thus in our context its suitable to define Coulomb’s Energy too.
The electric potential energy of a system of point charges is defined as the work required to assemble this system of
charges by bringing them close together, as in the system from an infinite distance. Alternatively, the electric potential
energy of any given charge or system of charges is termed as the total work done by an external agent in bringing the
charge or the system of charges from infinity to the present configuration without undergoing any acceleration.
Potential Energy for the system shown above:

1
⇒ 𝑈𝐸 𝑟 = 𝑞𝑄 = 𝑞𝑉𝐸 (𝑟)
4𝜋𝜀0 𝑟
Electric Field Screening
In physics, screening is the damping of electric fields caused by the presence of other charges, the effective interaction
between particles is reduced to a short-range "screened" Coulomb interaction.
The shielding effect sometimes referred to as atomic shielding or electron shielding describes the attraction between an
electron and the nucleus in any atom with more than one electron. The shielding effect can be defined as a reduction in
the effective nuclear charge on the electron cloud, due to a difference in the attraction forces on the electrons in the atom.
It is a special case of electric-field screening.
Screened Coulomb Potential (SCP) or Yukawa Potential
The first theoretical treatment of electrostatic screening was due to Peter Debye and Erich Hückel, it dealt with a stationary
point charge embedded in a fluid of electrons. Under the theoretical model, solving a system for electrostatic screening or
screened Coulomb interactions using approximations called the Debye–Hückel approximations, yields a result that is called
a Screened Coulomb Potential [1].
It is a Coulomb potential multiplied by an exponential damping term, with the strength of the damping factor given by the
magnitude of 𝑘0 , the Debye or Thomas–Fermi wave vector.
[1] has the same form as Yukawa Potential [2], SCP is also known as Yukawa Potential (used extensively in particle, atomic,
condensed matter and plasma physics).

- [1] - [2]

In [2],
𝑔 → 𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑢𝑑𝑒 𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡,
𝑟 → 𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑙𝑒 ,
𝑚 → 𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑟,
1
= 𝑎 → 𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑡𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑙𝑒𝑠,
𝛼𝑚
𝛼 → 𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡
Brief Account of Yukawa Potential
Prior to Hideki Yukawa's 1935 paper, physicists struggled to explain the
results of James Chadwick's atomic model, which consisted of positively
charged protons and neutrons packed inside of a small nucleus, with a
radius of the order of 10−15 meters.
Once quantum electrodynamics had produced the picture of the
electromagnetic force as a process of exchanging photons, the question
of whether or not the other forces were also exchange forces was a
natural one.
In 1935, Hideki Yukawa reasoned that the electromagnetic force was
infinite in range because the exchange particle was massless. He
proposed that the short range strong force came about from the
exchange of a massive particle which he called a meson.
1
He deduced a potential which includes an exponential decay term and an electromagnetic term 𝑟 . The exchange
1
particle had some mass, which was related to the range of interaction (given by 𝛼𝑚). Since the range of the nuclear force
was known, Yukawa used his equation to predict the mass of the mediating particle as about 200 times the mass of the
electron. Physicists called this particle the "meson," as its mass was in the middle of the proton and electron.
Appears at many places…
 Originally, Yukawa Potential wasn’t formulated to investigate the electric field screening,
then why does SCP have a form similar to Yukawa Potential, why are SCP and Yukawa
Potential used interchangeably?

1
, = 𝑎 → 𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑡𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑙𝑒𝑠
𝛼𝑚

Yukawa Potential involves damping the interaction between two particles. In terms of two stationary
charged particles, that means taking the Coulomb interaction which is long range (the potential
decays as 1/r so that even far away points cannot be assumed to be free) and turning it into a short
range interaction (the exponential decay tells us that farther than a distance 𝑎 the potential is
essentially zero). That means that a system which damps the Coulomb potential may be a candidate
to be described by this type of potential. Taking an atom which is hydrogen-like, a first approximation
is to just change the charge of the nucleus, however to higher precision, the electrons surrounding
the nucleus screen the nucleus' charge and modify the potential for other electrons in a multi-
electron atom, thus damping in potential occurs and this is where Yukawa Potential comes into play as
screened coulomb potential (scp).
Coulomb Potential (Potential Energy) from SCP

In case of attraction between particles or a bound system:

𝑞1 𝑞2 𝑘𝑞1 𝑞2
𝑉𝐶𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑜𝑚𝑏 𝑟 = − = −
4𝜋𝜀0 𝑟 𝑟

• The Coulomb potential of electromagnetism is an example of a Yukawa potential with the factor
equal to 1, everywhere. This can be interpreted as saying that the photon’s rest mass m is equal to 0.
The photon is the force-carrier between interacting, charged particles.
• The Yukawa Potential can be roughly thought of as a generalization of an inverse-square force potential
that takes into account a massive mediator of force. This would mean that instead of massless photons
exchanging the force, as is the case with electromagnetism, some other particle with mass exchanges
the force between two particles.
SCP and Coulomb Potential (A comparison)

• Coulomb Potential is long range (infinity), while SCP is a

short and finite range potential. Range doesn’t imply the
potential being exactly zero beyond the range, but it means
the potential being essentially zero.
• Within the range for SCP, for a particular r (radial distance
from the particle), the magnitude of Coulomb Potential
strength is greater than SCP which is understood as it
represents damping of field.
• It can be seen that the Coulomb potential has effect over a
greater distance whereas the SCP approaches zero rather
quickly.
• The slope for SCP graph is greater as compared to Coulomb
one initially till a certain value of radial distance, beyond
𝑞 𝑞
1 2 𝑘𝑞1 𝑞2 that SCP is essentially the same (almost zero). That means
𝑉𝐶𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑜𝑚𝑏 𝑟 = − 4𝜋𝜀 =− the rate of change of SCP strength with respect to given
0 𝑟 𝑟
change in distance is much greater as compared to Coulomb
one in this range and out of the range the opposite.
SCP and Coulomb Potential (A comparison)

1/𝛼𝑚 = 𝑎 = range of the force of between particles, thus changing

values of m gives different ranges or values of a.

• Coulomb Potential corresponds to m = 0 (photon), or infinite

range and its behaviour can be seen.
• Now as m goes on increasing, that is the mediator mass
increases, as expected, the range of SCP goes on decreasing, this
signifies increase in damping, hence for a particular value of
radial distance r, within appropriate range, the SCP strengths go
on decreasing, maximum strength being for Coulomb.
• As the range 𝑎 goes on increasing (mass m goes on decreasing)
for the same r, SCP approaches the behaviour of Coulomb
Potential.

𝑞 𝑞
1 2 𝑘𝑞1 𝑞2
𝑉𝐶𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑜𝑚𝑏 𝑟 = − 4𝜋𝜀 =− ,
𝑟0 𝑟
CP: SCP:
E1 = -13.45 eV E1 = -9.23 eV
E2 = -3.39 eV E2 = -0.49 eV
CP: SCP:
E1 = -13.45 eV E1 = -10.79 eV
E2 = -3.39 eV E2 = -1.27 eV
CP: SCP:
E1 = -13.45 eV E1 = -11.51 eV
E2 = -3.39 eV E2 = -1.74 eV
 What can we infer from the observations?
The initial comparison drawn between SCP and CP can now be verified in the results obtained from
solving the Hydrogen Atom Schrodinger Equation for the two potentials:
• The ground state energy for SCP is greater than -12 eV in all three cases (a = 3, 5, 7 angstrom).
• As the range ‘a’ increases the plots for SCP are approaching the ones for CP, at infinite range, they are
supposed to completely superimpose the CP ones.
• As can be seen, for either of the three values of ‘a’, the Radial Probability Density (u^2 = (R*r)^2) for
SCP states is mostly lesser than that for corresponding states with CP at a particular ‘r’.
• This is to be expected as the electron experiences a damped force and that implies lesser chances of
finding the electron at distance ‘r’ from nucleus. This is can also be inferred from the energy values, for
SCP the values are greater and keep decreasing as the range ‘a’ increases or the CP behaviour is
approached, accordingly the Radial Probability Density is increasing.
• LinCY_Ho_EPJD_2010_57_21.pdf
• Hadrons, baryons, mesons (gsu.edu)
• A.42 Nuclear forces (fsu.edu)
• Yukawa Potential (shef.ac.uk)
• quantum mechanics - Yukawa potential in the Schrödinger equation - Physics
Stack Exchange
• ptx107.pdf (silverchair.com)
• Electric potential energy – Wikipedia
• Electric-field screening – Wikipedia
• Shielding effect – Wikipedia
• Explanation of Yukawa potential | Physics Forums (googleweblight.com)