Saturday, 18 April 2015

classical mechanics - Quantum $n$-body problem


Is the quantum $n$-body problem as difficult as the classical $n$-body problem?


Or quantum mechanics allows to get a simpler exact solution?


Suppose there are 3 particles with uniform potential field. Can their wave functions be found exactly?



Answer



The quantum $n$-body problem is considerably simpler than the classical $n$-body problem, since the problems with collisions disappear. Rigorous existence results are much stronger. See, e.g., the book ''Scattering theory of classical and quantum N-particle systems'' by Derezinski and Gérard.



But explicit solutions are about as rare in the quantum case as in the classical case.


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