Exactly solvable noncentral potentials in two and three dimensions

Abstract

We show that the list of analytically solvable potentials in nonrelativistic quantum mechanics can be considerably enlarged. In particular, we show that those noncentral potentials for which the Schrodinger equation is separable are analytically solvable provided the separated problem for each of the coordinates belongs to the class of exactly solvable one dimensional problems. As an illustration, we discuss in detail two examples, one in two and the other in three dimensions. A list of analytically solvable noncentral potentials in spherical polar coordinates is also given. Extension of these ideas to other standard orthogonal coordinate systems as well as to higher dimensions is straightforward.