GAUSSIAN EFFECTIVE POTENTIAL - COMPUTATION OF EIGENVALUES

The Gaussian effective potential (GEP) is an approximation to quantum mechanics that semiquantitatively estimates quantum effects such as ze ro-point fluctuations and tunneling. We show how to use the GEP to com pute semiclassical eigenvalues. It is well known that the GEP provides very accurate variational approximations to the ground-state energy o f simple quantum systems; our results show that it also provides accur ate excited-state energies. We also show how this method is related to the first-order Bargmann-Voros coherent-state representation of quant um mechanics, and that our results improve upon those derived from the latter method.