+/- in p orbitals

  1. In the attached figure, what is the physical meaning of signs + and - in opposite lobes of p orbitals?

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  2. jcsd
  3. Those indicate the phase of the p orbitals. Recall that p orbitals have a node, so that, e.g. for the left one the function is positive to the right of the y axis and negative to the left of the y axis.
  4. Thank you. Do you mean that it is due to the radial part of wave function? If so, how to realize between px and py?
  5. No it's actually do to the angular part. px and py are just rotations of pz.

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