WKB and “cubic-WKB” methods as an adiabatic approximation

Abstract

This paper shows that WKB wave function can be expressed in the form of an adiabatic expansion. To build a bridge between two widely invoked approximation schemes seems pedagogically instructive. Further, “cubic-WKB” method that has been devised in order to overcome the divergence problem of WKB can be also presented in the form of an adiabatic approximation: The adiabatic expansion of a wave function contains a certain parameter. When this parameter is adjusted so as to make the next order correction vanish approximately, the adiabatic wave function becomes equivalent to that of the “cubic-WKB”.