Charged particle in the field of an electric quadrupole in two dimensions

Abstract

We obtain an analytic solution of the time-independent Schrödinger equation in two dimensions for a charged particle moving in the field of an electric quadrupole. The solution is written as a series in terms of special functions that support a tridiagonal matrix representation for the angular and radial components of the wave operator. This solution is for all energies, bound as well as scattering states. The expansion coefficients of the wavefunction are written in terms of orthogonal polynomials satisfying three-term recursion relations. The charged particle could become bound to the quadrupole only if its moment exceeds a certain critical value.