The quantum mechanical toda lattice

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to establish the exact quantization conditions for the three-body Toda lattice. The Hamiltonian consists of the kinetic energy for three particles in one dimension, and of the potential energy which couples each particle to its two companions through an exponential spring. After eliminating the center of mass motion, one is left with a system of two degrees of freedom and two constants of motion, the total energy E and a third integral A which commute. Nevertheless, no transformation has been found to separate the classical equations of motion or Schrödinger's equation. The wave function is written as a double Laurent series. Its coefficients have to satisfy two sets of recursion relations on a triangular grid where each set insures that we have a simultaneous eigenfunction of E and A. The condition for the convergence of this series can be expressed as the vanishing of a tridiagonal infinite determinant with 1 in the diagonal and the inverse of a third-order polynomial in the first off-diagonals. The coefficients in this polynomial are E and A, and the variable corresponds to a component of the wave vector associated with the wave function. This determinant can be treated exactly as Hill's, and yields the 3 components. The condition for the square integrability of the wave function requires the phase angle of the principal minors to be equal to 0, π 3, or 2π 3 according as the representation of the cyclic groups, for each component of the wave vector. But the third condition follows from the two others. The analogy with the corresponding two-body problem is pointed out. © 1980.