Separability of the Planar $1\mathrm{/}{\rho }^2$ Potential In Multiple Coordinate Systems

With a number of special Hamiltonians, solutions of the Schr"{o}dinger equation may be found by separation of variables in more than one coordinate system. The class of potentials involved includes a number of important examples, including the isotropic harmonic oscillator and the Coulomb potential. Multiply separable Hamiltonians exhibit a number of interesting features, including “accidental” degeneracies in their bound state spectra and often classical bound state orbits that always close. We examine another potential, for which the Schr"{o}dinger equation is separable in both cylindrical and parabolic coordinates: a $z$-independent $V\propto 1/\rho^{2}=1/(x^{2}+y^{2})$ in three dimensions. All the persistent, bound classical orbits in this potential close, because all other orbits with negative energies fall to the center at $\rho =0$. When separated in parabolic coordinates, the Schr"{o}dinger equation splits into three individual equations, two of which are equivalent to the radial equation in a Coulomb potential—one equation with an attractive potential, the other with an equally strong repulsive potential.