The static electric polarizability of a particle bound by a finite potential well

Abstract

We derive an expression for the static electric polarizability of a charged particle bound by a finite potential well by employing the elegant Dalgarno-Lewis perturbative technique. The derivation does not make explicit use of the continuum states, is much simpler than the usual perturbation derivation, and allows us to separate the contributions to the polarizability from the classically forbidden and classically allowed regions of the finite potential well.