Quadrupole Transitions in the Bound Rotational-Vibrational Spectrum of the Hydrogen Molecular Ion

Abstract

The three-body Schr\"odinger equation of the H$_2^+$ hydrogen molecular ion with Coulomb potentials is solved in perimetric coordinates using the Lagrange-mesh method. The Lagrange-mesh method is an approximate variational calculation with variational accuracy and the simplicity of a calculation on a mesh. Energies and wave functions of up to four of the lowest vibrational bound or quasibound states for total orbital momenta from 0 to 40 are calculated. The obtained energies have an accuracy varying from about 13 digits for the lowest vibrational state to at least 9 digits for the third vibrational excited state. With the corresponding wave functions, a simple calculation using the associated Gauss quadrature provides accurate quadrupole transition probabilities per time unit between those states over the whole rotational bands. Extensive results are presented with six significant figures.