Spline-Gauss rules and the Nyström method for solving integral equations in quantum scattering (Q1089781)

The paper describes a method for constructing a Gauss quadrature formula which is exact for splines of the form \(s(t)=\sum^{\ell}_{i=0}a_ it^ i+\sum^{r}_{i=0}b_ i(t-2_ i)^{\ell}_+\) where \(-1<z_ 1<z_ 2...<z_ r<1\), \(t_+=\max (0,t)\) and \(\ell +r+1=2n\). The formula uses r points and n weights and these are obtained by solving the moment equations for \(t^ i\) and \((t-2_ i)^{\ell}_+\) as standard functions. It is shown how the points and weights obtained can be used with the Nyström method to obtain a discrete approximation to an integral equation and an application is considered which is an integral equation for the quantum scattering of two mutually interacting particles. The results of using the Gauss quadrature method are compared with two other methods for this model problem it is shown that the Gauss method produces the most accurate values.