QUANTUM-MECHANICAL BOUND ROTATOR AS A GENERALIZED HARMONIC-OSCILLATOR

We report quantum mechanical studies of an entity of importance in the dynamics of the rotational polaron which arises in non-linear physics. The rotational polaron consists of a particle such as an electron or exciton in interaction with an oscillator subject to a sinusoidal potential which binds it to a ring. Our investigation focuses on the oscillator. Energy eigenvalues and eigenfunctions are computed and related to those for a harmonic oscillator. The time evolution under the action of a perturbing potential is also examined.