Physics Letters A 349 (2006) 297301

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On some classes of exactly-solvable KleinGordon equations
A. de Souza Dutra
a,b,
, G. Chen
c,d
a
Abdus Salam ICTP, Strada Costiera 11, 34014 Trieste, Italy
b
UNESP-Campus de Guaratinguet-DFQ
1
, Av. Dr. Ariberto Pereira da Cunha, 333 C.P. 205, 12516-410 Guaratinguet, SP, Brazil
c
Department of Physics, Shaoxing College of Arts and Sciences, Shaoxing 312000, PR China
d
Institute of Theoretical Physics, Shanxi University, Taiyuan 030006, PR China
Received 29 July 2005; received in revised form 20 September 2005; accepted 22 September 2005
Available online 3 October 2005
Communicated by R. Wu
Abstract
In this work we discuss some exactly solvable KleinGordon equations. We basically discuss the existence of classes of potentials with different
nonrelativistic limits, but which shares the intermediate effective Schroedinger differential equation. We comment about the possible use of
relativistic exact solutions as approximations for nonrelativistic inexact potentials.
2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
PACS: 03.65.Ge; 03.65.Pm
As a consequence of the physical importance of exact solu-
tions of relativistic equations for the study of systems under the
inuence of strong potentials, in nuclear physics and other ar-
eas, an increasing interest in the study of the KleinGordon and
Dirac equations has appeared in the last few years [113]. How-
ever, as asserted by one of the authors in a recent paper [6], it
is remarkable that in the most part of the works in this area, the
scalar and vector potentials are equal. In some few other cases
[2,57], it is considered the case where the scalar potential is
greater than the vector potential (in order to guarantee the ex-
istence of bound states). Here we report an extension of this
idea to a larger class of potentials where, particularly, we deal
with systems with arbitrary angular momentum quantum num-
bers, in contrast with the majority of the cases considered in the
literature which, as far as we know, are restricted to calculate
the exact solutions for the s-wave states. Finally, we trace some
comments about the possibility of using the exact relativistic
solutions, in order to get an analytical approximation for the
inexact nonrelativistic potentials, and this becomes more inter-
*
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (A. de Souza Dutra),
[email protected] (G. Chen).
1
Permanent institution.
esting if one consider that usually the Schroedinger equation
to be solved is for fermionic particles and that, on the other
hand, its relativistic counterpart is the Dirac equation. So, the
idea is to use the bosonic particle KleinGordon equation as a
mathematical tool to reach the goal of obtaining approximate
solutions for nonrelativistic fermionic particles eigenstates.
In this work we note that a more general imposition about
the relationship between the vector and scalar potentials could
be done by choosing
(1) V(r) V
0
+S(r),
with V
0
and being arbitrary constants and, usually it is re-
quired that S > V in order to grant the existence of bound
states. The case where these potentials are such that S
2
= V
2
must be considered separately as we will see along this work. It
is interesting to note that this restriction includes the case where
V(r) = 0 when both constants vanish, the situation where the
potentials are equal (V
0
= 0; = 1), and also the case where
the potentials are proportional [6] when V
0
= 0. Substituting
this constraint among the potentials into the time-independent
KleinGordon equation for a s-wave (

h =c =1),
(2)
d
2
u(r)
dr
2
+
_
m+S(r)
_
2
u(r) =
_
E V(r)
_
2
u(r),
0375-9601/$ see front matter 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.physleta.2005.09.056
298 A. de Souza Dutra, G. Chen / Physics Letters A 349 (2006) 297301
we are left with a Schroedinger-like equation

d
2
u(r)
dr
2
+
__
1
2
_
S(r)
2
+2
_
(E +V
0
) +m
_
S(r)
_
u(r)
(3) =
_
(E +V
0
)
2
m
2
_
u(r).
In a sense, this is a generalization of the approach recently
introduced in [6]. In fact, we could go further in this idea by
choosing a case where we do not need restrict ourselves to a
s-wave potential, and having scalar and vector potentials with
more free parameters. This would be the case, for example, if
we start with
(4) S(r) =
S
0
r
+S
1
r +S
2
r
2
, V(r) =
V
0
r
+V
1
r +V
2
r
2
,
obtaining the following effective Schroedinger-like potential
V
eff
(r) S(r)
2
V(r)
2
+2
_
EV(r) +mS(r)
_
+
l(l +1)
r
2
=
(S
2
0
V
2
0
+l(l +1))
r
2
+
_
S
2
2
V
2
2
_
r
4
+2(S
1
S
2
V
1
V
2
)r
3
+
_
S
2
1
V
2
1
+2(mS
2
+EV
2
)
_
r
2
+2
_
S
0
S
2
+V
0
V
2
+(EV
1
+mS
1
)
_
r
(5) +
2(EV
0
+mS
0
)
r
,
and, correspondingly its energy-like constant looks like
(6) E E
2
m
2
2(V
0
V
1
S
0
S
1
).
Unfortunately, this is not an exact case in general, but there
exist three exact ones at least, a s-wave driven harmonic os-
cillator, the Coulomb potential and nally the isotropic three-
dimensional harmonic oscillator. On the other hand, it can be
shown that the above potential is an example of quasi-exactly
solvable (QES) potential [14]. In this last case we would have
a relativistic QES potential, a kind of Coulomb potential with
radial Stark effect. From now on, we will treat each exact case
separately with some details, and presenting some very inter-
esting features.
(i) The s-wave driven harmonic oscillator: It is the case when
we have one of the two possibilities: (a) V
0
=S
0
=l =0, V
2
=
S
2
, S
1
=V
1
, and (b) V
0
=S
0
=l =0, S
2
=V
2
=0. In these
cases the effective potential looks respectively like
V
a
eff
(r) =2V
2
(E m)r
2
+2V
1
(E m)r,
(7) V
b
eff
(r) =
_
S
2
1
V
2
1
_
r
2
+2(EV
1
+mS
1
)r,
and, in the both cases, we can use the usual solution for the
driven harmonic oscillator. The major difference is in the corre-
sponding energy equation, which is given by
(8) E
2
m
2
+
B
2
4A
=
_
n +
1
2
_
_
2A
m
,
where we have worked with the denition V Ar
2
+ Br, so
that the corresponding energy equations are
_
E
a
n
_
2
m
2
+
V
2
1
2V
2
=
_
n +
1
2
_
_
4V
2
(E
a
n
m)
m
,
(9)
_
E
b
n
_
2
m
2
+
(E
b
n
V
1
+mS
1
)
2
(S
2
1
V
2
1
)
=
_
n +
1
2
_
2(S
2
1
V
2
1
)
m
.
The case (b) is easier to solve and their eigen-energies are
(10) E
b
n
=
1
S
1
_
V
1
m
_
_
2n +1
m
_
_
V
2
1
S
2
1
_
_
,
and for the case (a) we can perform a change of variable: E
a
n
=
e
a
n
m, so that the equation to be solved can be rewritten as
(11) e
a
n
_
e
a
n
2m
_
+
V
2
1
2V
2
=
_
n +
1
2
_
_
4V
2
e
a
n
m
.
Now, doing a new identication of variables like x
n

_
e
a
n
/m, one is lead to
(12) x
4
n
+2x
2
n

_
n +
1
2
_
_
4V
2
x
n
+
V
2
1
2m
2
V
2
=0,
where we shall choose the real roots. The simplest case with
V
1
=0, has as solutions
x
n
=0,
x
n
=
1
12
(
3
_
108

V
2
(2n +1) +12
_
96+81V
2
(2n+1)
2
)
2
24
3
_
108

V
2
(2n +1) +12
_
96 +81V
2
(2n +1)
2
,
(13)
x
n
=
1
6
(
3
_
108

V
2
(2n +1) +12
_
96 +81V
2
(2n +1)
2
)
2
24
3
_
108

V
2
(2n +1) +12
_
96 +81V
2
(2n +1)
2
.
Note that the rst solution above is a trivial one, correspond-
ing to the rest mass energy. Furthermore, the s-wave functions
are expressed as

n
(r) =
_

1/2
n!2
n
_
1/2
e

1
2
[

2A(r)
2
]
(14) H
n
_
2A(r )
_
,
where one should substitute the value of A for each one of the
above particular cases, and
B
2A
.
(ii) The Coulomb case: This case corresponds to choose
V
1
=S
1
= S
2
=V
2
= 0, so that the effective potential is given
by
(15) V
eff
(r) =
(S
2
0
V
2
0
+l(l +1))
r
2
+
2(EV
0
+mS
0
)
r
.
By using here the usual solution of the Coulomb potential in
the case with V
0
=S
0
=0, which is given by
(16) E
n
E
2
n
m
2
=
V
0
(E
n
+m)
2
n
2
, n =1, 2, 3, . . .
with the energy solutions
(17) E
n
=m, E
n
=m
n
2
+V
0
n
2
V
0
.
The corresponding wave functions are then written as
A. de Souza Dutra, G. Chen / Physics Letters A 349 (2006) 297301 299
u
n
(r) =
_
(2k
n
)
3
(n +l)!
2n(n l 1)!
_
1/2
(2k
n
r)
l
(2l +1)!
(18)
1
F
1
_
n +l +1; 2(l +1); 2k
n
r
_
e
k
n
r
,
where k
n

V
0
(E
n
+m)
n
and
1
F
1
(a, b, c) is the conuent hyper-
geometric function. From above, it is not difcult to conclude
that the rst solution is trivial and valid for the anti-particle,
and the second one corresponds to the particle energy. On the
other hand, if we consider the situation where V
0
>S
0
(in order
to guarantee the existence of bound states), the energy is then
written as
(19)
E
n
E
2
n
m
2
=
2(E
n
V
0
+mS
0
)
(N +1 +

4B
ii
+1)
, N =0, 1, 2, . . . ,
where B
ii
S
2
0
V
2
0
+l(l +1), and whose solutions are given
by
(20) E
()
n
=
1
N +1 +

(4B
ii
+1)
_
V
0
R(V
0
, B
ii
, N, m)
_
,
and
R(V
0
, B
ii
, N, m)

_
V
2
0
+m
2
N
_
N +2 +2
_
(4B
ii
+1)
_
+2m
2
_
1 +
_
(4B
ii
+1) +2B
ii
_
(21) 2mS
0
_
N +1 +
_
(4B
ii
+1)
__
1/2
.
The corresponding unnormalized wave functions are then
written as
u
n
(r) =N
n
e

E
n
r
r
1
2
(1+

4B
ii
+1)
(22)
1
F
1
_
N; 1 +
_
4B
ii
+1; 2
_
E
n
r
_
.
Note that in this case, both the particle and the anti-particle
have nontrivial solutions.
(iii) The third and last of the three cases case to be treated
here is the isotropic three-dimensional harmonic oscillator,
which occurs when V
1
= S
1
= V
0
= S
0
= 0; V
2
= S
2
, hav-
ing as effective potential
(23) V
eff
(r) =
l(l +1)
r
2
+2V
2
(E m)r
2
.
It is important to remember that in the nonrelativistic regime,
the KleinGordon equation becomes approximately equal to a
Schroedinger equation with the potential
(24)
1
2
d
2
u(r)
dr
2
+
_
V +S +
l(l +1)
2r
2
_
u(r) =(E m)u(r),
so that the nonrelativistic counterpart of the KleinGordon
equation, is given by the following potential
(25) V
nonrelativistic
=
l(l +1)
2r
2
+(V
2
+S
2
)r
2
.
It is quite remarkable that two different relativistic set of
potentials can be exactly solved through a Schroedinger-like
differential equation of the same kind. One is the above case,
where V
2
= S
2
which has the interesting feature that for the
minus sign, one has a relativistic potential with bound states,
whose nonrelativistic limit is a bound less state [4], and the an-
other for V(r) = S(r) = S
1
r ( > 1) and V
2
= S
2
= V
0
=
S
0
=0, having as effective potential
(26) V
eff
(r) =
l(l +1)
2r
2
+
_

2
1
_
S
2
1
r
2
,
and the corresponding nonrelativistic potential is not of oscilla-
tor type but just a linear potential with centrifugal barrier, and
is given by
(27) V
nonrelativistic
=
l(l +1)
2r
2
+(V
1
+S
1
)r.
It is important to note that this is a nonrelativistic potential
which does not have an exact solution, despite its relativistic
counterpart be exactly solvable. In fact, one could use the rel-
ativistic exact solution, as a way to get approximate solutions
for this nonexact nonrelativistic potential. In a certain sense,
one could have an analytical approximation for the radial Stark
effect coming from the exact solution of the above mentioned
KleinGordon potential.
Let us now begin to solving the effective Schroedinger equa-
tion. For this we perform a wave function redenition
(28) u(r) r
A
iii
e
B
iii
r
2
2
v(r),
which, after straightforward manipulations lead us to the equa-
tion
(29) r
d
2
v(r)
dr
2
+2
_
A
iii
+B
iii
r
2
_
dv(r)
dr
+c
0
v(r) =0,
where we imposed that
c
0
E
2
m
2
, A
iii
=l +1,
(30) B
iii

_
S
2
1
V
2
1
+2(mE)S
2
,
in the rst case, and B
iii
=

(V
1
+S
1
) in the second one. The
solution for the above differential equation, which is nonsingu-
lar at the origin, is then given by
(31) v(r) =N
1
F
1
_
c
0
4B
iii
,
1
2
+l +1, B
iii
r
2
_
,
with N being a normalization constant. The imposition of the
usual boundary conditions over this solution, lead us to put the
parameter a of the hypergeometric function equals to a nega-
tive integer, and this is responsible for the quantization of the
solutions, namely we get
(32)
c
0
4B
iii
=n, n =0, 1, 2, 3, . . . .
Now, for the sake of simplicity, we present rst the solution
of the second case, whose energy spectrum is given by
(33) E
n
=
_
m
2
4n
_
S
1
+V
1
,
where the positive sign corresponds to the particles and the neg-
ative to the anti-particles [4]. The rst case is a little bit more
complex. Its energy comes from the equation
(34) E
2
n
m
2
=4
_
S
2
1
V
2
1
+2(mE
n
)S
2
.
300 A. de Souza Dutra, G. Chen / Physics Letters A 349 (2006) 297301
The above ideas can be extended to a number of other sit-
uations, specially to the case of s-wave Morse type potentials
[6]. Finally, it is interesting to make one last comment about
the application of the above approach. In a very recent work,
de Castro [5] discussed the problem of mixed vectorscalar po-
tentials in 1+1 dimensions for the one-dimensional hydrogenic
atoms. In that work de Castro discussed in a very extensive and
competent way this system. Notwithstanding, one possibility
stayed behind, that was the situation where the vector potential
and the scalar one have the following appearance
(35) S(x) =V(x) =
V
0
|x|
+
V
1
x
2
,
leading to the following effective potential
(36) V
eff
(x) 2(E m)
_
V
0
|x|
+
V
1
x
2
_
.
Now, starting with the one-dimensional version of Eq. (2),
and performing the change of variable z =2
_
(E
2
m
2
)|x|,
one is lead after some straightforward computations to the same
equation (8) of [5],
(37)
d
2
(z)
dz
2
+
_

1
4
+
B
z

2A
z
2
_
(z) =0,
where it was dened that
(38) AV
1
(E m), B V
0
_

_
E m
E m
_
.
From this point the analysis of the differential equation is
absolutely analogous to that done by de Castro. For instance,
the Hermiticity of the effective Hamiltonian implies into the
condition [5]
(39)

_
0
dx

n
(H
eff

m
) =

_
0
dx (H
eff

n
)

m
,
which imposes that the eigenfunctions with different energies
must be orthogonal. On the other hand, once
n
() =0, it can
be seen that one can study equivalently the equation
lim
x0
_

n
d
m
dx

n
dx

n
_
=0.
This last condition makes necessary to use the following con-
straint over the potential parameter V
1
and the energy,
(40) V
1
(E m)
1
4
.
Finally, the wave functions of the bound states will be given
by
(41) (z) =N
n
z
s
e
z/2
L
2s1
n1
(z),
where
(42) s
1
2
_
1 +

1 +8A
_
,
and the energy should be obtained from an intricate equation
given by
(43) V
0
_

_
E m
E m
_
+
_
1
4
+2V
1
(E m) =
_
n +
1
2
_
.
Apart from the bound-state spectrum, one very interesting
question is regarding the scattering states. In fact, recently this
matter has attracted some attention in Refs. [15,16]. Particularly
in the work of Chen et al., it is studied the case of scattering
states of the KleinGordon with a mixing of scalar and vector
potentials of the Coulomb type for dimensions higher than two.
This can be very useful in order to get some idea how to ob-
tain these solutions, if any, in the above system. A preliminary
analysis about the possibility of obtaining such states, can be
done by observing the potential behavior. It is possible to ver-
ify that if |E| <m and V
1
>0 both kind of solutions will exist,
and for |E| m, only scattering states will be possible. On the
other hand, if V
1
<0 the analysis is more involved, and the su-
perior limit of the energies which allow bound state states is
not obvious from an initial analysis. Certainly this would be a
very interesting question to be investigated. As our nal com-
ments, we think that the ideas developed in this work can be
used to explore a great number of relativistic systems, as well as
can be extended to the case of the Dirac equation. Furthermore,
the possibility of getting approximate nonrelativistic solutions
from relativistic ones, should denitely be investigated more
profoundly. These and other aspects of the KleinGordon equa-
tion are currently under investigation.
Acknowledgements
One of the authors (A.S.D.) is grateful to CNPq for partial
nancial support, and to A.S. de Castro for introducing him to
this matter. This work has been nished during a visit within
the Associate Scheme of the Abdus Salam ICTP.
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