ON THE HARMONIC APPROXIMATION TO A MORSE OSCILLATOR PERTURBED BY A TIME-DEPENDENT INTERACTION

Abstract

Alternative algebraic techniques to approximate a given Hamiltonian by a harmonic oscillator are described both for time-independent and time-dependent systems. We apply them to the description of a one-dimensional atom-diatom collision. From the resulting evolution operator, we evaluate vibrational transition probabilities as well as other time-dependent properties. As expected, the ground vibrational state becomes a squeezed state during the collision.