Numerical solution of the one-dimensional time-independent Schrödinger’s equation by recursive evaluation of derivatives

摘要

We develop a simple numerical method for solving the one-dimensional time-independent Schrödinger’s equation. Our method computes the desired solutions as Taylor series expansions of arbitrarily large orders. Instead of using approximations such as difference quotients for the derivatives needed in the Taylor series expansions, we use recursive formulas obtained using the governing differential equation itself to calculate exact derivatives. Since our approach does not use difference formulas or symbolic manipulation, it requires much less computational effort when compared to the techniques previously reported in the literature. We illustrate the effectiveness of our method by obtaining numerical solutions of the one-dimensional harmonic oscillator, the hydrogen atom, and the one-dimensional double-well anharmonic oscillator.