An economical method to calculate eigenvalues of the Schroedinger Equation

The method is an extension to negative energies of a spectral integral equation method to solve the Schroedinger equation, developed previously for scattering applications. One important innovation is a re-scaling procedure in order to compensate for the exponential behaviour of the negative energy Green's function. Another is the need to find approximate energy eigenvalues, to serve as starting values for a subsequent iteration procedure. In order to illustrate the new method, the binding energy of the He-He dimer is calculated, using the He-He TTY potential. In view of the small value of the binding energy, the wave function has to be calculated out to a distance of 3000 a.u. Two hundred mesh points were sufficient to obtain an accuracy of three significant figures for the binding energy, and with 320 mesh points the accuracy increased to six significant figures. An application to a potential with two wells separated by a barrier, is also made.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Eur. J. Phy

Comparison of numerical methods for the calculation of cold atom collisions

Three different numerical techniques for solving a coupled channel Schroedinger equation are compared. This benchmark equation, which describes the collision between two ultracold atoms, consists of two channels, each containing the same diagonal Lennard-Jones potential, one of positive and the other of negative energy. The coupling potential is of an exponential form. The methods are i) a recently developed spectral type integral equation method based on Chebyshev expansions, ii) a finite element expansion, and iii) a combination of an improved Numerov finite difference method and a Gordon method. The computing time and the accuracy of the resulting phase shift is found to be comparable for methods i) and ii), achieving an accuracy of ten significant figures with a double precision calculation. Method iii) achieves seven significant figures. The scattering length and effective range are also obtained.Comment: 22 pages, 3 figures, submitted to J. Comput. Phys. documentstyle [thmsa,sw20aip]{article} in .te

Inclusion of virtual nuclear excitations in the formulation of the (e,e'N)

A wave-function framework for the theory of the (e,e'N) reaction is presented in order to justify the use of coupled channel equations in the usual Feynman matrix element. The overall wave function containing the electron and nucleon coordinates is expanded in a basis set of eigenstates of the nuclear Hamiltonian, which contain both bound states as well as continuum states.. The latter have an ingoing nucleon with a variable momentum Q incident on the daughter nucleus as a target, with as many outgoing channels as desirable. The Dirac Eqs. for the electron part of the wave function acquire inhomogeneous terms, and require the use of distorted electron Green's functions for their solutions. The condition that the asymptotic wave function contain only the appropriate momentum Q_k for the outgoing nucleon, which corresponds to the electron momentum k through energy conservation, is achieved through the use of the steepest descent saddle point method, commonly used in three-body calculations.Comment: 30 page

A Novel Method for the Solution of the Schroedinger Eq. in the Presence of Exchange Terms

In the Hartree-Fock approximation the Pauli exclusion principle leads to a Schroedinger Eq. of an integro-differential form. We describe a new spectral noniterative method (S-IEM), previously developed for solving the Lippman-Schwinger integral equation with local potentials, which has now been extended so as to include the exchange nonlocality. We apply it to the restricted case of electron-Hydrogen scattering in which the bound electron remains in the ground state and the incident electron has zero angular momentum, and we compare the acuracy and economy of the new method to three other methods. One is a non-iterative solution (NIEM) of the integral equation as described by Sams and Kouri in 1969. Another is an iterative method introduced by Kim and Udagawa in 1990 for nuclear physics applications, which makes an expansion of the solution into an especially favorable basis obtained by a method of moments. The third one is based on the Singular Value Decomposition of the exchange term followed by iterations over the remainder. The S-IEM method turns out to be more accurate by many orders of magnitude than any of the other three methods described above for the same number of mesh points.Comment: 29 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Complex Conjugate Pairs in Stationary Sturmians

Sturmian eigenstates specified by stationary scattering boundary conditions are particularly useful in contexts such as forming simple separable two nucleon t matrices, and are determined via solution of generalised eigenvalue equation using real and symmetric matrices. In general, the spectrum of such an equation may contain complex eigenvalues. But to each complex eigenvalue there is a corresponding conjugate partner. In studies using realistic nucleon--nucleon potentials, and in certain positive energy intervals, these complex conjugated pairs indeed appear in the Sturmian spectrum. However, as we demonstrate herein, it is possible to recombine the complex conjugate pairs and corresponding states into a new, sign--definite pair of real quantities with which to effect separable expansions of the (real) nucleon--nucleon reactance matrices.Comment: (REVTEX) 8 Pages, Padova DFPD 93/TH/78 and University of Melbourn