The Spectrum of the Cubic Oscillator

Abstract

We prove the simplicity and analyticity of the eigenvalues of the cubic oscillator Hamiltonian,$H(\beta)=-d^2/dx^2+x^2+i\sqrt{\beta}x^3$,for $\beta$ in the cut plane $\C_c:=\C\backslash (-\infty, 0)$. Moreover, we prove that the spectrum consists of the perturbative eigenvalues $\{E_n(\beta)\}_{n\geq 0}$ labeled by the constant number $n$ of nodes of the corresponding eigenfunctions. In addition, for all $\beta\in\C_c$, $E_n(\beta)$ can be computed as the Stieltjes-Pad\'e sum of its perturbation series at $\beta=0$. This also gives an alternative proof of the fact that the spectrum of $H(\beta)$ is real when $\beta $ is a positive number. This way, the main results on the repulsive PT-symmetric and on the attractive quartic oscillators are extended to the cubic case.