Journal of Physics A Mathematical and General
Some exact solutions to the translation-invariant N-body problem
Richard L. Hall
Abstract
It is shown that Schrodinger's equation for a translation-invariant system consisting of N particles with arbitrary masses interacting via Hooke's law pair potentials with the same coupling constant can be solved exactly; explicit solutions are found for the case N=3. Exact solutions are also found explicitly for the translation-invariant problem in which a particle with mass m 0 interacts with N identical particles of mass m 1 via a Hooke's law pair potential with coupling constant k 0 2 , and the identical particles interact with each other via Hooke's law pair potentials with coupling constant k 1 2 . The latter solution provides a basis problem for an energy lower-bound method for translation-invariant atom-like systems.