Three-body calculations at Los Alamos

This work was motivated by four goals: (1) by working in configuration space, where intuition is greatest, investigate graphically those trinucleon properties which are determined by specific features of wave functions; (2) produce benchmark calculations against which new techniques and numerical methods can be measured; (3) investigate the effect of the Coulomb interaction between the two protons in 3He and in the p-d system; (4) systematically investigate the various trinucleon observables. Configuration space is particularly well-suited for investigating the Coulomb problem. The singularity and discontinuity problems associated with the Coulomb (momentum space) t-matrix are transformed into boundary condition problems in configuration space. One simply adds the Coulomb potential to the strong interaction. In order to produce accurate numerical solutions powerful techniques were adopted which have not frequently been used in nuclear physics. These spline methods together with collocation techniques combine the power of Gaussian quadrature procedures with the flexibility and strength of finite element approaches to solving partial differential equations. The union of these methods allows one to calculate wavefunctions at the same qualitative level of accuracy as the eigenvalues. Observables can therefore be calculated with considerable confidence. 30 refs., 6 figs