Weakly bound states in heterogeneous waveguides: a calculation to fourth order

We have extended a previous calculation of the energy of a weakly heterogeneous waveguide to fourth order in the density perturbation, deriving its general expression. For particular configurations where the second and third orders both vanish, we discover that the fourth order contribution lowers in general the energy of the state, below the threshold of the continuum. In these cases the waveguide possesses a localized state. We have applied our general formula to a solvable model with vanishing second and third orders reproducing the exact expression for the fourth order.Comment: 20 pages, one table, two figures; minor changes with respect to the first versio

Convergence acceleration of series through a variational approach

By means of a variational approach we find new series representations both for well known mathematical constants, such as $\pi$ and the Catalan constant, and for mathematical functions, such as the Riemann zeta function. The series that we have found are all exponentially convergent and provide quite useful analytical approximations. With limited effort our method can be applied to obtain similar exponentially convergent series for a large class of mathematical functions.Comment: 19 pages, 9 figures, 1 table Accepted for publication on the Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Application