Abstract

As in the usual quantum field theory, the states, and therefore also the eigenvalue spectrum of an anharmonic oscillator can be characterized by means of the so-called τ-functions, that is the matrix element of the type 〈0 | qn | j〉. For the calculation of these matrix elements, the equation of motion of the anharmonic oscillator can be used to obtain an infinite set of equations, which define an eigenvalue problem. To solve it a new set of functions, the so-called φ-functions, are introduced by means of a transformation, whose matrix corresponds formally to the WICK rule. An analysis of this infinite system of φ-equations shows that a convergent secular polynomial can be obtained, which exists as a limiting value of the polynomials for the truncated N φ -equationsystems in the limit N → ∞ . It is therefore permissible to calculate the eigenvalues of the infinite system in an approximate way from the truncated systems. Such an approximation procedure is the essential content of the so-called TAMM-DANCOFF method. The above mentioned convergence of the determinants therefore provides its justification. The convergence of the eigenvalues of the truncated systems to the exact oscillator values is numerically examined up to N= 20. The results are satisfactory.

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