Wide effectiveness of a sine basis for quantum-mechanical problems in \(d\) dimensions (Q1953166)

Summary: It is shown that the spanning set for \(L^2([0, 1])\) provided by the eigenfunctions \(\{\sqrt{2}\sin (n\mu x)\}^\infty_{n=1}\) of the particle in a box in quantum mechanics provides a very effective variational basis for more general problems. The basis is scaled to \([a, b]\), where \(a\) and \(b\) are then used as variational parameters. What is perhaps a natural basis for quantum systems confined to a spherical box in \(\mathbb{R}^d\) turns out to be appropriate also for problems that are softly confined by \(U\)-shaped potentials, including those with strong singularities at \(r = 0\). Specific examples are discussed in detail, along with some bound \(N\)-boson systems.