Confining optical potentials

The possibility of confining a quantum particle in an optical potential, the imaginary part of which would be related to the existence of inelastic reaction channels coupled to the elastic one, is considered. Pure imaginary potentials of various (constant, linear, and parabolic) radial shapes are studied. The numerical dependence of the energies and mean‐lives of the confined states is explicitly shown. Analytical expressions for such dependence are also given in some cases.