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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Asymptotic Evaluation Of Wkb Matrix Elements. Ii. Use Of Langer's Uniform Asymptotic Wavefunctions, Wesley D. Smith, Russell T. Pack
Asymptotic Evaluation Of Wkb Matrix Elements. Ii. Use Of Langer's Uniform Asymptotic Wavefunctions, Wesley D. Smith, Russell T. Pack
Faculty Publications
An improvement in a previous procedure for the analytic asymptotic evaluation of integrals arising in the quantum-mechanical theory of inelastic molecular collisions is presented. The integrals are evaluated using Langer's uniform asymptotic wavefunctions and the higher-order saddle-point or steepest-descents method. It is found that the Langer functions give no better results than WKB functions, but the higher-order steepest-descents corrections produce a marked improvement. The result is a simple method for evaluating a large class of integrals with an error of 0.1%-2.1%.