Prepotential approach: a unified approach to exactly, quasi-exactly, and rationally extended solvable quantal systems

Abstract

Abstract We give a brief overview of a simple and unified way, called the prepotential approach, to treat both exact and quasi-exact solvabilities of the one-dimensional Schrödinger equation. It is based on the prepotential together with Bethe ansatz equations. Unlike the the supersymmetric method for the exactly-solvable systems and the Lie-algebraic approach for the quasi-exactly solvable problems, this approach does not require any knowledge of the underlying symmetry of the system. It treats both quasi-exact and exact solvabilities on the same footing. In this approach the system is completely defined by the choice of two polynomials and a set of Bethe ansatz equations. The potential, the change of variables as well as the eigenfunctions and eigenvalues are determined in the same process. We illustrate the approach by several paradigmatic examples of Hermitian and non-Hermitian Hamiltonians with real energies. Hermitian systems with complex energies, called the quasinormal modes, are also presented. Extension of the approach to the newly discovered rationally extended models is briefly discussed.