One-Dimensional Quasi-Exactly Solvable Schr\"odinger Equations

TL;DR

This paper explores one-dimensional quasi-exactly solvable Schr"odinger equations, revealing their algebraic structure, spectral properties, and perturbation methods, bridging differential and finite-difference equations through Lie algebraic formalism.

Contribution

It introduces a Lie algebraic framework for quasi-exactly solvable problems, linking Schr"odinger equations to finite-difference equations and developing an algebraic perturbation theory.

Findings

Spectra are preserved under quantum canonical transformations.

Finite-difference spectral problems are explicitly described.

Polynomial wavefunction corrections can be systematically constructed.

Abstract

Quasi-Exactly Solvable Schr\"odinger Equations occupy an intermediate place between exactly-solvable (e.g. the harmonic oscillator and Coulomb problems etc) and non-solvable ones. Their major property is an explicit knowledge of several eigenstates while the remaining ones are unknown. Many of these problems are of the anharmonic oscillator type with a special type of anharmonicity. The Hamiltonians of quasi-exactly-solvable problems are characterized by the existence of a hidden algebraic structure but do not have any hidden symmetry properties. In particular, all known one-dimensional (quasi)-exactly-solvable problems possess a hidden $\mathfrak{sl}(2,\bf{R})-$ Lie algebra. They are equivalent to the $\mathfrak{sl}(2,\bf{R})$ Euler-Arnold quantum top in a constant magnetic field. Quasi-Exactly Solvable problems are highly non-trivial, they shed light on delicate analytic properties of the Schr\"odinger Equations in coupling constant. The Lie-algebraic formalism allows us to make a link between the Schr\"odinger Equations and finite-difference equations on uniform and/or exponential lattices, it implies that the spectra is preserved. This link takes the form of quantum canonical transformation. The corresponding isospectral spectral problems for finite-difference operators are described. The underlying Fock space formalism giving rise to this correspondence is uncovered. For a quite general class of perturbations of unperturbed problems with the hidden Lie algebra property we can construct an algebraic perturbation theory, where the wavefunction corrections are of polynomial nature, thus, can be found by algebraic means.