Approximate analytical solution for two electrons in the continuum

In this work we construct a correlated double continuum wave function for the three-body Schroedinger equation valid for large interparticle distances. Genuine three-body effects are considered by taking into account a nondiagonal part of the Hamiltonian written in generalized parabolic coordinates. A solution is found in terms of the confluent hypergeometric function of two variables Φ2, with similar structure to the first-order Faddeev approximation. The use of such a solution seems to introduce appropriately the interelectronic repulsion. copyright 1997 The American Physical Society