A theoretical study of Ne3 using hyperspherical coordinates and a slow variable discretization approach.

We study theoretically the ground and excited bound states of the bosonic rare gas van der Waals trimer Ne(3). A slow variable discretization approach is adopted to solve the nuclear Schrödinger equation, in which the Schrödinger equation in hyperangular coordinates is solved using basis splines at a series of fixed finite-element methods discrete variable representation hyper-radii. We consider not only zero total nuclear orbital angular momentum, J = 0, states but also J > 0 states. By using the best empirical neon dimer interaction potentials, all the bound state energy levels of Ne(3) will be calculated for total angular momenta up to J = 6, as well as their average root-mean-square radii. We also analyze the wave functions in hyperspherical coordinates for several selected bound states.