Collinear Classical Helium Atom

t

125.4

E

-1.09999

p

1

(0)

-6.5499

p

2

(0)

-2.1499

q

1

(0)

0.87

q

2

(0)

1.105

Collinear helium is a hypothetical system with two electrons arranged along a line on opposite sides of a nucleus of charge +2, with infinite nuclear mass. The electron positions then imply a problem with two degrees of freedom. The plots show the dynamics projected onto the plane of the position of the two electrons

(

r

1

,

r

2

)

. For a number of initial conditions, trajectories escape to infinity after several reflections.