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Physical Review A

Perturbation theory for a Dirac particle in a central field

C. K. Au, G. W. Rogers

Published Nov 1, 1980• 14 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We present a perturbation theory for an arbitrary bound state of a Dirac particle in a central field by reducing the Dirac equation to a Ricatti equation, following a method first introduced by Mikhailov and Polikanov. All corrections to the energies and wave functions, including corrections to the positions of the nodes in excited states, are expressed in quadrature in a hierarchical scheme, without the use of either the Green's function or the sum over intermediate states.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.22.1820

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We present a perturbation theory for an arbitrary bound state of a Dirac particle in a central field by reducing the Dirac equation to a Ricatti equation, following a method first introduced by Mikhailov and Polikanov. All corrections to the energies and wave functions, including corrections to the positions of the nodes in excited states, are expressed in quadrature in a hierarchical scheme, without the use of either the Green's function or the sum over intermediate states.
Abstract We present summary results of a bound‐state perturbation theory for a one‐space and one‐time dimension nonrelativistic spinless (Schrödinger) particle, a relativistic spinless (Klein‐Gordon) particle, and a relativistic spin‐half (Dirac) particle in central fields due to scalar or fourth‐component vector‐type interactions for an arbitrary bound state. This is accomplished by the reduction of the wave equations to Ricatti form. This enables a decoupling between the pair of coupled first order differential equations on the large and small component Dirac wave functions or a decoupling of the second order differential equation in the Schrödinger or Klein‐Gordon equations. All corrections to the energies and wave functions, including corrections to the positions of the nodes in excited states, are expressed in quadratures in a hierarchial scheme, without the use of either the Green's function or the sum over intermediate states. For the ground states of a Schrödinger particle, it is possible to extend this technique to multidimension in the case where the perturbation is due to noncentral fields, for example, in the problem of a nonrelativistic hydrogen atom in a linear combination of multiple fields.
We present a new derivation of Time-Independent Perturbation Theory (PT) that is shorter and more general than the usual ones presented in Quantum Mechanics (QM) texts. Expressing the task of PT in terms of Green's functions, the key to our approach is to write the bound-state equation for the perturbed wave function directly in terms of the unperturbed Green's function. Not only does this greatly simplify the derivation of PT expressions for energies and wave functions, but it does so without using the orthogonality or completeness properties of unperturbed Hamiltonian eigenstates, which form the basis of standard derivations of PT. As a result, our approach does not require the potentials to be energy independent as is required in standard derivations, nor does it require the inverse free Green's operator G0−1(E) to be a linear function of energy, as is the case in QM. Consequently, our approach is applicable not only to QM but also to various extensions of QM, including Quantum Field Theory. For students, our approach provides an easy-to-understand introduction to the use of Green's functions in QM while at the same time presenting a description of PT that is shorter and more fundamental than the standard ones currently advocated.
This paper presents several cases in which the effects of the addition of a delta function potential on bound states can be computed exactly. In the case of the one dimensional Schrödinger equation, a Green’s function technique is used to compute an exact implicit expression that gives the effect of the one−dimensional delta function potential on the bound states eigenvalues. It is also shown that the weak coupling limit of the implicit expression agrees with the perturbative treatment of the delta function. It is pointed out that this technique cannot be applied to obtain an exact treatment of the delta function potential δ3(r) in the three−dimensional Schrödinger equation. Instead, an alternate definition of the delta function in three dimensions as a limit of a sequence of square well potentials is used. Unlike the one dimensional case, the exact effect on the eigenvalue does not agree in the limit of weak coupling with the perturbative results. This indicates that the three−dimensional delta function potential should not be used to approximate strongly coupled short range potentials for which perturbation theory is inadequate.