We present an infinite family of one-dimensional potentials, of a rather general aspect, whose ground-state energies and wave functions can be expressed in an exact, analytic fashion.
The ground-state energies and wave functions of a particle moving in one-dimensional potentials of the form V(x)=x2p, p=1,2,..., are obtained nearly exactly by iterative solution of the Schrödinger equation. These solutions are used as the ‘‘experimental benchmark’’ against which approximate solutions for the general case are tested. Both finite depth wells and infinitely deep wells are studied, as is the three-dimensional version (spherical symmetry, angular momentum quantum number l=0). The approach is aimed at student exploration of the physics of the family of potential wells, with emphasis upon connecting the familiar extreme cases, V(x)=x2 (simple harmonic oscillator) and the limiting case xk, k→∞ (square well).
We present the exact solution for the many-body wavefunction of a one-dimensional mixture of bosons and spin-polarized fermions with equal masses and infinitely strong repulsive interactions under external confinement. Such a model displays a large degeneracy of the ground state. Using a generalized Bose-Fermi mapping, we find the solution for the whole set of ground-state wave functions of the degenerate manifold and we characterize them according to group-symmetry considerations. We find that the density profile and the momentum distribution depends on the symmetry of the solution. By combining the wave functions of the degenerate manifold with suitable symmetry and guided by the strong-coupling form of the Bethe-Ansatz solution for the homogeneous system, we propose an analytic expression for the many-body wave function of the inhomogeneous system which well describes the ground state at finite, large, and equal interaction strengths, as validated by numerical simulations.