Convergent Schrödinger Perturbation Theory

A formulation of Schrödinger perturbation theory is developed that gives a unified treatment of non-degenerate and degenerate cases, is unique, and has a nonzero radius of convergence under very general conditions. Two alternative procedures are given for finding perturbed eigenvectors, one of which is simpler for the nondegenerate case or for small finite degeneracy, the other simpler for infinite or large finite degeneracy. The low-order terms in the perturbation expansions of quantities used in applications are given. The perturbation theory formulated in this paper has the following advantages over the conventional Schrödinger and Brillouin-Wigner perturbation theories: (i) When the convergence criterion is satisfied, bounds on the error made in replacing an appropriate infinite perturbation series by its first $n$ terms can be obtained. (ii) For the case of degeneracy, the conventional Schrödinger perturbation theory can break down under conditions to which the convergence of the perturbation theory developed in this paper are insensitive. (iii) There is no implicit dependence on the eigenvalue, such as appears in the Brillouin-Wigner perturbation theory. (iv) For the case of degeneracy, statistical information about the distribution of certain eigenvalues can be obtained without finding the individual eigenvalues. (v) The theory is applicable to a wider class of problems than the conventional Schrödinger and Brillouin-Wigner perturbation theories.