It has been a long-standing question whether momentum space integral
equations of the Faddeev type are applicable to reactions of three charged
particles, in particular above the three-body threshold. For, the presence of
long-range Coulomb forces has been thought to give rise to such severe
singularities in their kernels that the latter may lack the compactness
property known to exist in the case of purely short-range interactions.
Employing the rigorously equivalent formulation in terms of an
effective-two-body theory we have proved in a preceding paper [Phys. Rev. C
{\bf 61}, 064006 (2000)] that, for all energies, the nondiagonal kernels
occurring in the integral equations which determine the transition amplitudes
for all binary collision processes, possess on and off the energy shell only
integrable singularities, provided all three particles have charges of the same
sign, i.e., all Coulomb interactions are repulsive. In the present paper we
prove that, for particles with charges of equal sign, the diagonal kernels, in
contrast, possess one, but only one, nonintegrable singularity. The latter can,
however, be isolated explicitly and dealt with in a well-defined manner. Taken
together these results imply that modified integral equations can be
formulated, with kernels that become compact after a few iterations. This
concludes the proof that standard solution methods can be used for the
calculation of all binary (i.e., (in-)elastic and rearrangement) amplitudes by
means of momentum space integral equations of the effective-two-body type.Comment: 36 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
