Variational Principle for Three-Particle Scattering

Abstract

A variational principle is developed for three-body scattering which resembles in form a combination of the Kohn and Schwinger variational principles. Its principal advantage over previous formulations is that for energies above the three-body breakup threshold, it is not necessary to know the complicated correlation terms in the asymptotic part of the wave function. Application of the principle to both separable and local potentials is discussed. In this paper we present results of calculations with separable potentials for elastic and rearrangement processes beneath the breakup threshold.