Off-campus UNL users: To download campus access dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your NU ID and password. When you are done browsing please remember to return to this page and log out.

Non-UNL users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this dissertation through interlibrary loan.

Asymptotic adiabatic hyperspherical potential curves for three body systems

Zhen Zheng, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Abstract

The adiabatic hyperspherical technique is applied to investigate the asymptotic behavior of three-body systems. Here our attention is focused on deriving the analytical expressions for the asymptotic effective potential curves and the corresponding channel wave functions of the system, which, so far, cannot be obtained otherwise by conventional numerical methods to the required accuracy. Firstly, we consider a system of three charged particles of which two have opposite charges. We study such asymptotic regions in which one particle is far away from the other two, leaving them in either the ground state or, more importantly, excited ones. Asymptotic adiabatic hyperspherical potential curves and channel wave functions, valid through 1/R$\sp4$ and 1/R$\sp2$ respectively, are obtained. The wave functions and potentials include the polarization potential characteristic of the polarized orbital approximation. Terms specific to the separation in hyperspherical coordinates are identified. This investigation is then extended to three-body systems such as Helium and other iso-electronic ions in which two of the particles are identical. A symmetrization treatment of such systems leads us to a reasonable approximation to their asymptotic potential curves. Secondly, we study three neutral bosons with two-body short range interactions characterized by the so-called effective range r$\sb{\rm o}$ and scattering length c$\sb{\rm o}$. Analytical expressions for the effective hyper-radial potential are also obtained without explicit use of the two-body potential. The analytical results are then used to compare the general asymptotic behaviors of three-body systems interacting via short range potentials with those interacting via long range Coulomb ones. Possible loosely bound states of the system have also been analyzed quantitatively and the result confirms the prediction by Efimov. At the same time, some new characteristics of the three-body system are discussed. This investigation, once again, demonstrates the adiabatic hyperspherical method as a comprehensive framework for quantitative treatment of three-body systems.

Subject Area

Atoms & subatomic particles

Recommended Citation

Zheng, Zhen, "Asymptotic adiabatic hyperspherical potential curves for three body systems" (1988). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8904519.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8904519

Share

COinS