New Path Integral Formula for Singular Potentials

Christian Grosche

Svensson, Anders

The path integral formulation of quantum mechanics generalizes the action principle of classical mechanics. The Feynman path integral is, roughly speaking, a sum over all possible paths that a particle can take between fixed endpoints, where each path contributes to the sum by a phase factor involving the action for the path. The resulting sum gives the probability amplitude of propagation between the two endpoints, a quantity called the propagator. Solutions of the Feynman path integral formula exist, however, only for a small number of simple systems, and modifications need to be made when dealing with more complicated systems involving singular potentials, including the Coulomb potential. We derive a generalized path integral formula, that can be used in these cases, for a quantity called the pseudo-propagator from which we obtain the fixed-energy amplitude, related to the propagator by a Fourier transform. The new path integral formula is then successfully solved for the Hydrogen atom in two and three dimensions, and we obtain integral representations for the fixed-energy amplitude.

Hagen M. Kleinert

Fundamentals Path Integrals - Elementary Properties and Simple Solutions External Sources, Correlations, and Perturbation Theory Semiclassical Time Evolution Amplitude Variational Perturbation Theory Path Integrals with Topological Constrainsts Many Particle Orbits - Statistics and Second Quantization Path Integrals in Spherical Coordinates Fixed-Energy Amplitude and Wave Functions Spaces with Curvature and Torsion Schrodinger Equation in General Metric-Affine Spaces New Path Integral Formula for Singular Potentials Path Integral of Coulomb System Solution of Further Path Integrals by the Duru-Kleinert Method Path Integrals in Polymer Physics Polymers and Particle Orbits in Multiply Connected Spaces Tunneling Nonequilibrium Quantum Statistics Relativistic Particle Orbits Path Integrals and Financial Markets.