THE KIRKWOOD-BUCKINGHAM VARIATIONAL METHOD AND THE BOUNDARY-VALUE-PROBLEMS FOR THE MOLECULAR SCHRODINGER-EQUATION

The approach based on the multiplicative form of a trial wave function within the framework of the variational method, initially proposed by Kirkwood and Buckingham, is shown to be an effective analytical tool in the quantum mechanical study of atoms and molecules. As an example, the elementary proof is given to the fact that the ground state energ y of a molecular system placed into the box with walls of finite heigh t goes to the corresponding eigenvalue of the Dirichlet boundary value problem when the height of the walls is growing up to infinity. (C) 1 997 American Institute of Physics.