Within quantum chemistry, the electron clouds that surround nuclei in atoms and molecules are sometimes treated as clouds of probability and sometimes as clouds of charge. These two roles, tracing back to Schrödinger and Born, are in tension with one another but are not incompatible. Schrödinger’s idea that the nucleus of an atom is surrounded by a spread-out electron charge density is supported by a variety of evidence from quantum chemistry, including two methods that are used to determine atomic and molecular structure: the Hartree-Fock method and density functional theory. Taking this evidence as a clue to the foundations of quantum physics, Schrödinger’s electron charge density can be incorporated into many different interpretations of quantum mechanics (and extensions of such interpretations to quantum field theory).

在量子化学中，原子和分子中围绕原子核的电子云有时被视为概率云，有时被视为电荷云。这两个角色，追溯到薛定谔和波恩，彼此紧张但并非不相容。薛定谔关于原子核被分散的电子电荷密度包围的观点得到了来自量子化学的各种证据的支持，包括两种用于确定原子和分子结构的方法：Hartree-Fock 方法和密度泛函理论。将这一证据作为量子物理学基础的线索，薛定谔的电子电荷密度可以纳入量子力学的许多不同解释（以及这种解释对量子场论的扩展）。