Coulomb Forces in the Three-Body Problem

The Faddeev-Lovelace equations, describing three particles interacting via short-range separable potentials, are modified to include the case in which two of the particles are charged. The three-body amplitudes are split into pure Coulomb and Coulomb-distorted amplitudes, and a set of integral equations similar to Lovelace's are obtained for the Coulomb-distorted amplitudes. The pure Coulomb contributions are taken to be zero for rearrangement channels and are approximated by two-body Coulomb amplitudes for the elastic scattering channel. Numerical results for deuteron-induced reactions on ${}_{}{}^{16}{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{O}$ are compared with experimental data, with encouraging results.