An approximation to the structure of a many-electron atom can be obtained by considering each electron to be a stationary state in the field of the nucleus and the Schrodinger charge distribution of the other electrons, and rather more than five years ago I gave a method of working out atomic structures based on this idea, and called the field of the nucleus and distribution of charge so obtained the “self-consistent field.” The method of working out the self-consistent field for any particular atom involves essentially ( a ) the estimation of the contributions to the field from the various electron groups constituting the atom in question; ( b ) the solution of the radial wave equation for an electron in the field of the nucleus and other electrons, this solution being carried out for each of the wave functions sup­posed occupied by electrons in the atomic state considered; and ( c ) the calculation of the contribution to the field from the Schrodinger charge dis­tribution of an electron group with each radial wave function. The estimates of the contributions to the field have to be adjusted by trial until the agreement between the contributions finally calculated and those estimated is considered satisfactory.

Results of calculations of atomic wave functions. I.—Survey, and self-consistent fields for Cl - and Cu +. (1933). Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A, Containing Papers of a Mathematical and Physical Character, 141(844), 282–301.