Remark on shape invariant potential

For more than a decade, Supersymmetry has provided new information about ordinary quantum mechanical problems, and Supersymmetric Quantum Mechanics has become a field research by itself. If has been shown that the symmetry between two different systems that share energy spectra can be interpreted in terms of supersymmetry. From the knowledge of the ground state of a given potential it is possible to find another potential with the same energy spectrum, except for the ground state. In fact, from the use of supersymmetric partner Hamiltonians and their degeneracy spectra it has become possible to determine a ladder of Hamiltonians and their spectra, only through the ground states of the ladder. Concerning the partner Hamiltonians with potentials V+ and V- that are similar in shape but Differ in the parameters. Gedenshtein introduced in 1983 the concept of shape invariance. Here we propose an extension of this concept. It is formulated in terms of the functional form of the whole super-family and not only between any two members of the ladder. We give two examples where all the members of the super-family can be written in a general functional form and conclude that Gedenshtein's conditions of shape invariance is sufficient but not necessary in order to obtain the super-family. (author)