On the reduction of the multidimensional stationary Schrödinger equation to a first-order equation and its relation to the pseudoanalytic function theory

Abstract

Given a particular solution of a one-dimensional stationary Schroedinger equation (SE) this equation of second order can be reduced to a first order linear differential equation. This is done with the aid of an auxiliary Riccati equation. We show that a similar fact is true in a multidimensional situation also. We consider the case of two or three independent variables. One particular solution of (SE) allows us to reduce this second order equation to a linear first order quaternionic differential equation. As in one-dimensional case this is done with the aid of an auxiliary Riccati equation. The resulting first order quaternionic equation is equivalent to the static Maxwell system. In the case of two independent variables it is the Vekua equation from theory of generalized analytic functions. We show that even in this case it is necessary to consider not complex valued functions only, solutions of the Vekua equation but complete quaternionic functions. Then the first order quaternionic equation represents two separate Vekua equations, one of which gives us solutions of (SE) and the other can be considered as an auxiliary equation of a simpler structure. For the auxiliary equation we always have the corresponding Bers generating pair, the base of the Bers theory of pseudoanalytic functions, and what is very important, the Bers derivatives of solutions of the auxiliary equation give us solutions of the main Vekua equation and as a consequence of (SE). We obtain an analogue of the Cauchy integral theorem for solutions of (SE). For an ample class of potentials (which includes for instance all radial potentials), this new approach gives us a simple procedure allowing to obtain an infinite sequence of solutions of (SE) from one known particular solution.