The Boundary Condition Method

The goal of potential theory is to construct a realistic description of the two-particle interaction. In practice such potentials are largely empirical, with parameters adjusted to reproduce observables (phase shifts, bound state properties) via solutions of the two-body Schrodinger equation. However, except under artificially restrictive mathematical assumptions (locality), it is impossible to uniquely determine potentials from such information. Thus a class of “realistic” models may be constructed which provide comparable fits to the two-particle data. These potentials are distinguished by specific dynamical assumptions which can be probed only by applying them to a new class of phenomena.