Subject: 3 body problems

From: "Shobe, Dave" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2001 12:03:34 -0500

Maybe someone here knows this.

It is well known that the Schrödinger equation has only been analytically
solved for two-body problems: H, He+, Li++, ...  

My question (which may sound like hair splitting to some, but is actually a
profound question) is: whether the 3-body problems He and (H2)+ are unsolved
because people have not been clever enough to find the solution, or if they
are unsolved because they CAN'T be solved using the usual functions
(logarithms, sines, cosines, etc.)  Just as certain integrals can't be
expressed, and one has to make up new functions like the Bessel functions to
"solve" the integration problem.

--David Shobe
Süd-Chemie Inc.
phone (502) 634-7409
fax     (502) 634-7724
email  [email-masked]

Don't bother flaming me: I'm behind a firewall.