The solution of Faddeev integral equations for three-body scattering by means of B-splines (Q2277804)

The authors develop a method for the solution of a Fredholm integral equation of the second kind with singularities both in the kernel and in the solution, based on the approximation of the solution by B-splines. The singularities of the kernel are treated using subtraction. The singularity in the solution requires special attention. In Section 2 the spline method to solve integral equations is explained in detail, and in Section 3 the elementary problem of how to distribute knots to approximate a square root function in an optimal way is investigated. The accuracy and the convergence of the spline method is investigated in Section 4 on an analytically solvable example, such that the kernel and the solution have similar singularity structures as the AGS-type integral equations. The solution of the three-body integral equations describing the physical problem of pion-deuteron scattering is discussed in Section 5. Numerical results and comparisons are shown in figures and tables.