Dimensional Perturbation Theory on the Connection Machine

Abstract

A recently developed linear algebraic method for the computation of perturbation expansion coefficients to large order is applied to the problem of a hydrogenic atom in a magnetic field. We take as the zeroth order approximation the $D \rightarrow \infty$ limit, where $D$ is the number of spatial dimensions. In this pseudoclassical limit, the wavefunction is localized at the minimum of an effective potential surface. A perturbation expansion, corresponding to harmonic oscillations about this minimum and higher order anharmonic correction terms, is then developed in inverse powers of $(D-1)$ about this limit, to 30th order. To demonstrate the implicit parallelism of this method, which is crucial if it is to be successfully applied to problems with many degrees of freedom, we describe and analyze a particular implementation on massively parallel Connection Machine systems (CM-2 and CM-5). After presenting performance results, we conclude with a discussion of the prospects for extending this method to larger systems.