1197 
AERC? ER BW Pr 
== a + 2B i + (p,’—p’) pho Sip banis (7) 
which is represented graphically in Fig. 1 for p< p,. The curves 
nearest the axis of ordinates correspond to large negative values of 
the energy constant «. With increasing energy the curves bend out 
more and more and for «—O they divide into two branches which 
approach asymptotically to the axis of abscissae. For a positive the 
asymptotes are straight lines parallel to this axis. 
For small values of 7 (7) reduces to 
amt | 
Di pons EE Sh U OEE (| 
r 
ie. at a distance from the axis of abscissae the curves are hy perbolic. 
The area of such a curve is logarithmically infinite and the difference 
between the area of two curves is also always infinite, unless we 
apply artificial means such as the formation of the principal values 
of the integral. Since according to the quantum theory the areas 
of two successive stationary curves must differ by the finite quantity A, 
it follows that in this case the stationary energy stages must be 
infinitely dense, ie. all values of the energy are “selected” in the 
sense of the theory. Whereas the selected values of p form a series 
of discrete numbers, those of « form a continuum. There are thus 
an infinite number of motions which starting from the zero reach 
as far as we like. All these orbits lead to a collision with the 
nucleus and for this reason they are not very important physically. 
Fig. 1. 
