1996/08/20 by A. C. B. Antunes, Antunes, A. C. B., L. J. Antunes +1
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.hep-ph/9608377
6 pages, latex, no figures
arxiv created 1996/08/20 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30
The problem of three different masses bound by harmonic oscillator potentials is solved exactly. It is shown that Jacobi coordinates cannot, in general, decouple this system into two three-dimensional oscillators but this decoupling can always be obtained in terms of the normal coordinates. The condition for the decoupling in Jacobi coordinates is given. It is shown that the mean distance between each pair of particles depends upon their masses.