Phys. Rev. A 65, 022109 (2002) [9 pages]Concepts of radial and angular kinetic energiesReceived 30 August 2001; published 15 January 2002 We consider a general central-field system in D dimensions and show that the division of the kinetic energy into radial and angular parts proceeds differently in the wave-function picture and the Weyl-Wigner phase-space picture. Thus, the radial and angular kinetic energies are different quantities in the two pictures, containing different physical information, but the relation between them is well defined. We discuss this relation and illustrate its nature by examples referring to a free particle and to a ground-state hydrogen atom. © 2002 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.65.022109
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevA.65.022109
PACS:
03.65.Ge, 31.10.+z, 42.25.Bs, 03.65.Sq
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