Exact solutions of the Klein-Gordon equation

Dr. T. K. Jana1
Department of Mathematics
R.S.Mahavidyalaya, Ghatal 721212, India

1
e-mail : [email protected]

1
Exact solutions of the Klein-Gordon equation T. K. Jana 2

1 Introduction
The description of phenomena at high energies requires the investigation of
relativistic wave equations. Efforts to formulate relativistic quantum mechan-
ics began with the works of Schrödinger [1], Gordon [2], and Klein [3] by using
the correspondence principle. Due to the importance of exact solutions of rel-
ativistic wave equations [4], there have been a growing interest in obtaining
such solutions [5]. In particular bound state solutions of the Klein-Gordon
(KG) equation have been studied by many authors, e.g, the exact bound state
solutions of the s-wave KG equation with the generalized Hulthén potential
have been obtained [6], the bound state solutions for the exponential potential
has been studied [7, 8, 9], in ref [10] the existence of classes of potentials with
different nonrelativistic limits is discussed, the problem of a spinless particle
subject to a general mixing of vector and scalar inversely linear potentials in a
two dimensional space is analyzed in [11], by solving KG equation with equal
scalar and vector Rosen-Morse-type potentials the exact energy equation for
the s-wave bound states is obtained in [12], in [13] the three-dimensional Dirac
and KG equations with scalar and vector potentials of equal magnitudes has
been studied as an attempt to give a proper physical interpretation of this
class of problems. In many of these of papers exact solutions were obtained
for (1 + 1) dimensional or the s wave KG equation for different choices of the
energy independent vector and the scalar potential. In the first part of this
chapter our objective is to expand the class of exactly solvable KG equation for
real, unequal and energy independent vector and scalar interactions [14] and
supplement earlier results [6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13]. Also, instead of directly
solving the relevant differential equation, we shall use an algebraic technique,
namely, the shape invariance [15] and intertwining property to obtain exact
Exact solutions of the Klein-Gordon equation T. K. Jana 3

solutions.

In all the cases mentioned above the models have been studied within the
context of point particles. In recent years, the concept of a minimal length
has emerged from studies on quantum gravity [16], perturbative string theory
[17], black holes [18] etc. In such a scenario the standard Heisenberg uncer-
tainty relation gets modified and this causes UV/IR mixing. As a consequence
it is meaningful to study quantum mechanics in the presence of a minimal
length [19, 20, 21, 22]. In particular exact as well as approximate solutions
of various quantum mechanical problems have been obtained in the presence
of a minimal length, e.g, by applying the minimal length formalism to the
harmonic oscillator problem, the energy spectrum and the expression of the
corresponding eigenfunctions are deduced [20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26], the physi-
cal states of maximal localization and their properties have been calculated
in [22], in [27, 28] the spectrum and eigenfunctions in the momentum rep-
resentation for Coulomb potential with deformed Heisenberg algebra leading
to minimal length are found exactly , the spectrum of the hydrogen atom is
studied in [26, 29], the energy eigenvalues and eigenfunctions for a charged
spin half particle moving under the influence of a constant magnetic field are
determined exactly in ref [30], the energy eigenvalues, eigenfunctions and the
high-temperature thermodynamic properties of the Dirac oscillator in one di-
mension are obtained in [31, 32], considering quadratic canonical commutation
relation in one dimension the spectrum of Pöschl-Teller and Morse potentials
are exactly determined in ref [33], the influence of a generalized uncertainty
principle on the energy spectrum of (1+1)-dimensional Dirac equation with a
linear scalar-like confining potential is studied in [34].
Exact solutions of the Klein-Gordon equation T. K. Jana 4

It may be noted that KG equation which is solvable for different vector and
scalar potentials without minimal length may not be exactly solvable when
considered in the presence of a minimal length. Here our objective is to study
the KG equation in the presence of a minimal length. However it will be shown
that the (1 + 1) dimensional KG equation admits exact analytical solutions
[35]. For obtaining the solutions we shall use two methods: first we shall obtain
the solutions by solving the Schrödinger like equation in momentum space and
next we shall obtain the solutions in a purely algebraic fashion by utilizing the
shape invariance symmetry of the problem [36].

2 Supersymmetric quantum mechanics:

Concept of shape invariance
Let us first briefly describe the concept of shape invariance. Consider a pair
of Hamiltonians, given by
d2
H− = A† A = − + U− (x)
dx2
(1)
d2
H+ = AA† = − + U+ (x)
dx2
where
d d
A= + W (x) , A† = − + W (x)
dx dx (2)
2 0
U± (x) = W (x) ± W (x)
and W(x) is called the superpotential. Let us now consider the following
operators
     
†
 H− 0   0 0   0 A 
H=  ,Q =   , Q† =   (3)
0 H+ A 0 0 0
Exact solutions of the Klein-Gordon equation T. K. Jana 5

It can be shown that the above operators satisfy the supersymmetry algebra
given by [15, 37]

[H, Q] = [H, Q† ] = 0, {Q, Q† } = H, {Q, Q} = {Q† , Q† } = 0. (4)

The operators Q and Q† are known as supercharges. The potentials U± (x)

appearing in Eq.(1) are known as supersymmetric partner potentials. Now
the Schrödinger equation corresponding to H− is

H− ψn− = A† Aψn− = En− ψn− (5)

Operating from the left by A we obtain from Eq. (5)

H+ (Aψn− ) = En− (Aψn− ) (6)

Similarly, from the Schrödinger equation corresponding to H+ we have

H− (A† ψn+ ) = En+ (A† ψn+ ) (7)

Therefore it is clear that if E is an eigenvalue of the Hamiltonian H− (H+ )with

eigenfunction ψ, then E is also the eigenvalue of the Hamiltonian H+ (H− ) and
the corresponding eigenfunction is Aψ (A† ψ ). But this statement is not still
valid if Aψ0− = 0 ( or A† ψ0+ = 0 ). So the exact relationship between the
eigenstates of the two Hamiltonians will crucially depend on the ground state
energy E0± which may be zero or nonzero (in case the ground state energy is
zero, for the sake of definiteness we shall assume it belong to H− ).
Case1: Let E0− 6= 0 (in this case supersymmetry is said to be broken),
the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the corresponding Hamiltonians H± are
shown to be related by [15]

En+ = En−
ψn+ ∝ Aψn− (8)
ψn− ∝ A† ψn+ , n = 0, 1, 2, .......
Exact solutions of the Klein-Gordon equation T. K. Jana 6

Case2: Let E0− = 0 (unbroken supersymmetry), in this case the respective

relation is given by [15]
−
En+ = En+1 , E0− = 0
−
ψn+ ∝ Aψn+1 (9)
−
ψn+1 ∝ A† ψn+ , n = 0, 1, 2, .......

The underlying reason for the degeneracy of the spectra of H− and H+ is that
the supercharges Q and Q† commute with H.
We are now in a position to discuss the integrability condition of these partner
potentials, known as shape invariance. The shape invariance condition was first
introduced by Gendenshtein [38] to study the spectral properties of partner
potentials in supersymmetric quantum mechanics (SUSYQM). If the pair of
SUSY partner potentials U± (x; a1 ) = W 2 (x; a1 )±W 0 (x; a1 ) are similar in shape
and differ only in the parameters that appear in them, then they are said to be
shape invariant. The condition for the partner potentials U± (x) to be shape
invariant is given by [15]

U+ (x; a1 ) = U− (x; a2 ) + R(a1 ) (10)

Where a1 is a set of parameters, a2 is a function of a1 i.e., a2 = f (a1 ) and

R(a1 ) is independent of x. Using this condition one can easily obtain the
entire energy eigenvalues and the eigenfunctions of H− very easily when SUSY
is unbroken [15]. For unbroken SUSY, we have
Z x
E0− = 0 and ψ0− (x; a1 ) ∝ exp[− W (y; a1 )dy] (11)

Let us start from Eq. (10) and on adding kinetic energy operator to both the
sides, the shape invariance condition can also be written as

H+ (x; a1 ) = H− (x; a2 ) + R(a1 ) (12)

Exact solutions of the Klein-Gordon equation T. K. Jana 7

Since the two Hamiltonians differ only by a constant, it is clear that all their
eigenvalues must differ from each other only by that constant and further all
their eigenfunctions must be proportional to each other. In particular

E0+ (a1 ) = E0− (a2 ) + R(a1 ), ψ0+ (x; a1 ) ∝ ψ0− (x; a2 ) (13)

Since E0− (a2 ) = 0 we have E0+ (a1 ) = R(a1 ), now on using Eq. (9), we obtain
the eigenvalue and the eigenfunction of the first excited state as

E1− (a1 ) = E0+ (a1 ) = R(a1 ) and

(14)
ψ1− (x; a1 ) ∝ A† (x; a1 )ψ0+ (x; a1 ) ∝ A† (x; a1 )ψ0− (x; a2 )

d
where A† (x; a1 ) = − + W (x; a1 ) and ψ0− (x; a1 ) is the ground state wave
dx
function corresponding to U− (x; a1 ).
From Eq. (9) we have

E2− (a1 ) = E1+ (a1 ) and

(15)
ψ2− (x; a1 ) ∝ A† (x; a1 )ψ1+ (x; a1 )

Again from Eq. (12) we can write

E1+ (a1 ) = E1− (a2 ) + R(a1 ), ψ1+ (x; a1 ) ∝ ψ1− (x; a2 ) (16)

Now the values of E1− (a2 ) and ψ1− (x; a2 ) can be obtained from Eq. (14) by
replacing the parameter only, therefore the eigenvalue and the eigenfunction
of the second excited state is given by

E2− (a1 ) = E1+ (a1 ) = E1− (a2 ) + R(a1 ) = R(a2 ) + R(a1 ) and
ψ2− (x; a1 ) ∝ A† (x; a1 )ψ1+ (x; a1 ) ∝ A† (x; a1 )ψ1− (x; a2 ) ∝ A† (x; a1 )A† (x; a2 )ψ0− (x; a3 )
(17)
Thus by iterating the above procedure we can obtain
n
En− (a1 ) =
X
R(ak ) (18)
k=1
Exact solutions of the Klein-Gordon equation T. K. Jana 8

while the corresponding wave function is given by

ψn− (x; a1 ) ∝ A† (x; a1 )A† (x; a2 )....A† (x; an )ψ0− (x; an+1 ) (19)

3 Shape invariance approach to exact solution

of the Klein-Gordon equation
We shall now use results of the last section to obtain solutions of KG equation.
Let us now consider stationary (1 + 1) dimensional KG equation of the form
[6, 7, 8, 10]
d2 ψ
− + [(m + S(x))2 − (E − V (x))2 ]ψ = 0 (20)
dx2
where V (x) and S(x) denote the vector and the scalar potentials respectively.
Written in full, Eq.(20) becomes
d2 ψ
− + U (x)ψ = ψ (21)
dx2
where

U (x) = S 2 (x) − V 2 (x) + 2[mS(x) + EV (x)] ,  = E 2 − m2 (22)

To use the concept of shape invariance it is now necessary to identify (22) with
one of the potentials U± . To do this we choose the vector and scalar potentials
to be of the form
V (x) = V0 f (x) , S(x) = S0 f (x) (23)

Then from (22) it follows that

U (x) = (S02 − V02 )f 2 (x) + 2(mS0 + EV0 )f (x) (24)

Thus to put (24) in the form U± it is necessary to choose f (x) such that f 0 (x)
can be expressed in terms of f (x) and also impose suitable constraints on
Exact solutions of the Klein-Gordon equation T. K. Jana 9

the coupling constants. Furthermore one has to be careful so that the vector
potential V (x) and the scalar potential S(x) do not become energy dependent.
We shall now obtain exact solutions of (21) for different choices of f (x).

Case 1. Let us first consider

f (x) = tanhx (25)

For this choice Eq.(21) can be written as

d2 ψ
− + U1 (x)ψ = 1 ψ (26)
dx2
where

U1 (x) = −(S02 − V02 )sech2 x + 2(mS0 + EV0 )tanhx , 1 = E 2 − m2 − S02 + V02

(27)
It may be observed that if S02 > V02 , then U1 (x) can be treated as a shape
invariant potential admitting discrete eigenvalues [15]. In this case we have
B
W (x; a1 ) = Atanhx + , ai = (A − i + 1),
A
" #
1 1
R(ai ) = [(A − i + 1)2 − (A − i + 2)2 ] + B 2 2
−
(A − i + 1) (A − i + 2)2
(28)
where q
−1 + 1 + 4(S02 − V02 )
A= , B = mS0 + En V0 (29)
2
Then from (18) it follows that
n
B2 q
R(ai ) = −(A − n)2 −
X
1n = , n = 0, 1, 2, ... < (A − |B|) (30)
i=1 (A − n)2
We note that in contrast to nonrelativistic Schrödinger equation, in the present
case the number of discrete energy levels depends on the energy En rather than
Exact solutions of the Klein-Gordon equation T. K. Jana 10

on n. Now from (29) and (30) the energy eigenvalues are found to be
√
± −Q ± Q2 − 4Pn Rn
En = (31)
2Pn

where
Pn = (A − n)2 + V02
Q = 2mS0 V0 (32)
Rn = (A − n)4 + m2 S02 − (A − n)2 (m2 + S02 − V02 )
Now using (19) and noting that the ground state wave function can be obtained
from the relation A(x; a1 )ψ0 (x; a1 ) = 0, the wave functions corresponding to
(31) can be found to be [15, 39]

± ± ± ±
ψn (x; a1 ) ∝ (1 − tanhx)s1 /2 (1 + tanhx)s2 /2 Pn(s1 ,s2 ) (tanhx) (33)

where the (±) sign correspond to positive and negative energy,

B B
s±
1 = A−n+ , s±
2 = A−n− and Pn(a,b) denotes Jacobi polyno-
A−n A−n
mials.

It is important to note that not all the energy levels in (31) are acceptable.
To determine the acceptable levels we need to examine the behaviour of the
wave functions (33). From (33) it is seen that the wave functions are acceptable
if s± ± ± ±
1 , s2 > 0. But both s1 and s2 depend on A and B with B depending on

En± . However the resulting dependence of s± ± ±

1 and s2 on En is quite complicated

and the above conditions has to be checked numerically for each level. We have
computed the energy values and the parameters s±
1,2 for different values of the

input parameters m, S0 , V0 and the results are given in tables 1 and 2.

Case 2. We shall now choose

f (x) = −e−x (34)

Exact solutions of the Klein-Gordon equation T. K. Jana 11

This case was treated in ref [6] by solving the KG equation (20). Here we red-
erive the results via the shape invariance property and examine the acceptable
energy levels. For the choice (34) we obtain from (22)

U2 (x) = (S02 − V02 )e−2x − 2(mS0 + EV0 )e−x (35)

In this case it can be shown that

W (x; a1 ) = A − Be−x , ai = (A − i + 1),

(36)
R(ai ) = (A − i + 1)2 − (A − i)2

where
mS0 + EV0 1 q
A± = q − , B = S02 − V02 (37)
S02 − V02 2
Thus we have
n
R(ai ) = −(A − n)2 , n = 0, 1, 2, ... < A
X
2n = (38)
i=1

and consequently q
−Qn ± Q2n − 4P Rn
En± = (39)
2P
where

P = S02
1 q
Qn = −2(n + )V0 S02 − V02 + 2mV0 S0 (40)
2
1 2 2 1 q
Rn = (n + ) (S0 − V02 ) + m2 V02 − 2(n + )mS0 S02 − V02
2 2
The wave functions corresponding to (39) are given by [15, 40]
± −n −x ± −2n
ψn (x) ∝ (2Be−x )A e−Be L2A
n (2Be−x ) (41)

where Lαn (x) denotes generalized Laguerre polynomials. From (41) it follows
that normalizability of the wave functions requires B > 0 and A± > 0 (A±
Exact solutions of the Klein-Gordon equation T. K. Jana 12

denotes the values of A corresponding to positive and negative energy). The

first of these conditions can be ensured by choosing S02 > V02 and since A±
depends on En± , the second condition has to be checked for each individual
quantum number n. Furthermore, the number of discrete energy states de-
pends on the values of A± . We have numerically evaluated the energy values
and the parameter A± for some value of the input parameters m, S0 and V0
and the results are presented in table 3.

Case 3. Finally we consider

f (x) = x/2 (42)

In this case we obtain

1
U3 (x) = (S02 − V02 )x2 + (mS0 + EV0 )x (43)
4
Clearly U3 (x) is a shape invariant potential with

W (x; a1 ) = Ax + B , ai = A , R(ai ) = 2A (44)

where
S02 − V02 mS0 + EV0
A2 = , B= q (45)
4 S02 − V02
Thus we get
3n = (2n + 1)A − B 2 (46)

so that q
−Qn ± Q2n + 4P Rn
En± = (47)
2Pn
where
P = S02
Q = 2mS0 V0 (48)
1
Rn = (S02 − V02 )3/2 (n + ) − m2 V02
2
Exact solutions of the Klein-Gordon equation T. K. Jana 13

The corresponding wave functions are given by

2 /2 √ B
ψn (x) ∝ e−y Hn (y) , y = A(x + ) (49)
A
where Hn denotes Hermite polynomials.
It follows from (43) that for discrete energy states the condition S02 > V02
should hold and in this case all the energy levels exist. In table 4 we present
some energy values for certain values of the parameters m, V0 and S0 .

4 Quantum mechanics in the presence of a

minimal length
In standard quantum mechanics in one dimension the Heisenberg uncertainty
relation for reads
h̄
∆x∆p ≥ (50)
2
where ∆x and ∆p are respectively the position and momentum uncertainties.
To know the position of the particle precisely (i.e uncertainty in position tends
to zero) we are to take the limit ∆p → ∞, i.e one has to consider sufficiently
high energy. While if gravity is neglected, in principle there is no limit to
researching smaller and smaller distances using beams of ever increasing en-
ergies. When gravity becomes important we should not look into smaller and
smaller distances at high energies, as increasing a collision’s energy above the
Planck scale, the extreme energy concentration in a small space create a black
hole with an event horizon behind which we can not see. Also in string theory,
it is assumed that strings have a finite size and it is impossible to use strings to
probe distances smaller than the string scale. These facts suggest that nature
may possess an absolute minimal length.
Exact solutions of the Klein-Gordon equation T. K. Jana 14

In one dimensional quantum mechanics in the presence of a minimal length the

canonical commutation relation between position and momentum becomes de-
formed. Out of the various deformed commutation relations we shall consider
here one of the simplest ones and it is given by [19, 20, 21, 22]

[x̂, p̂] = ih̄(1 + βp2 ) (51)

where β ≥ 0 is a small parameter. A representation of x̂ and p̂ satisfying (51)

are given by [19, 20, 21, 22]
∂
x̂ = ih̄[(1 + βp2 ) + γp], p̂ = p (52)
∂p
Also as a consequence of (51) the Heisenberg uncertainty relation gets mod-
ified and the generalized uncertainty relation reads
h̄
∆x̂∆p̂ ≥ [1 + β(∆p̂)2 ] (53)
2
From (53) it follows that there exists a minimal length given by
q
(∆x̂)min = h̄ β (54)

In the space where position (x̂) and momentum (p̂) are given by (52) the
associated scalar product (which ensures hermiticity of x̂ and p̂) is defined by
Z
φ∗ (p)ψ(p)
hφ(p)|ψ(p)i = γ dp (55)
(1 + βp2 )1− β

4.1 Klein Gordon equation in the presence of a minimal

length

We consider the form of the (1 + 1) dimensional KG equation in the presence

of a minimum length as similar to the standard one [6, 7, 8, 10] except that
the position and momentum are now given by Eq. (52) [19, 20, 21, 22]:

[c2 p2 + (mc2 + S(x̂))2 ]ψ = [E − V (x̂)]2 ψ (56)

Exact solutions of the Klein-Gordon equation T. K. Jana 15

We now choose the vector and the scalar potential to be of the form

V (x̂) = µx̂, S(x̂) = λx̂ (57)

where we have taken λ2 > µ2 so as to avoid complex eigenvalues. Now using

the representation (52) the KG equation (56) can be written in momentum
space as
d2
" #
d
−f (p) 2 + g(p) + h(p) ψ = ψ (58)
dp dp
where the functions f (p), g(p) and h(p) are given by

f (p) = (1 + βp2 )2
(µE + mc2 λ)
" #
2
g(p) = −2(1 + βp ) p(β + γ) − i
h̄(λ2 − µ2 )

c2 2iγp (µE + mc2 λ) (59)

" #
2
h(p) = −p γ(β + γ) − 2 2 +
h̄ (λ − µ2 ) h̄(λ2 − µ2 )

(E 2 − m2 c4 )
 = γ+
h̄2 (λ2 − µ2 )

Eq.(58) can be solved by performing a transformation involving a change of

independent variable as well as the wavefunction:
Z
1
ψ(p) = ρ(p)φ(p), q= q dp (60)
f (p)

where
R
χ(p) dp f 0 + 2g
ρ(p) = e , χ(p) = (61)
4f
Under the above transformation Eq.(58) can be written in the form of a
Schrödinger equation
d2
" #
− 2 + V (q) φ = eφ (62)
dq
Exact solutions of the Klein-Gordon equation T. K. Jana 16

where the potential V (q) and the energy e are given by

c2 2
q π π
V (q) = sec ( βq), − √ <q< √
βh̄2 (λ2 − µ2 ) 2 β 2 β
(63)
2 2 2
(λE + µmc ) c
e = 2 2 2
+ 2 2
h̄ (λ − µ ) h̄ (λ − µ2 )β
The potential appearing above is a standard solvable potential whose energy
and eigenfunctions (apart from a normalization factor) are given by [15]
√ r
2
q β + β + h̄2 (λ4c
2 −µ2 )β
en = (A + βn)2 , A = , n = 0, 1, 2, .... (64)
2
A
q A
√ (√ − 12 , √
A
− 12 ) q
β β
φn (q) = (cos βq) β
Pn (sin βq) (65)

Now using the relations (59) and (60) we finally obtain

v v
u
2
µmc h̄(λ2 − µ2 ) u 1 1 u 4c2
u
En = − + tβ(n2 + n + ) + β(n + )t1 +
u
λ λ 2 2 h̄2 β 2 (λ2 − µ2 )
(66)

√
(mc2 λ+µEn )tan−1 ( βp)  γ √A A
(√ − 12 , √
A
− 12 )
i √ 
2 −( 2β + β ) β β
q
h̄ β(λ2 −µ2 )
ψn (p) = e 1 + βp Pn (sin βq) (67)

where Pn(a,b) denotes Jacobi polynomials. It can be shown that the eigenfunc-
tions are orthogonal with respect to the scalar product (55). We note that
although (66) is an exact result, nevertheless it is sometimes useful to separate
the β dependent contribution to the spectrum. So expanding (66) in powers
of β we find
s s
µmc 2
h̄c 2 2 h̄3  2 3
q5 2 1
2 4 (n + n + 2 )
En ≈ − + 2
(λ −µ ) (2n + 1)+
4
2
λ −µ √ β+O(β 2 )
λ λ 4cλ 2n + 1
(68)
where the first two terms are the standard β independent contribution [6, 7,
8, 10, 11, 12, 9, 13, 14] while the rest depends on β.
Exact solutions of the Klein-Gordon equation T. K. Jana 17

4.2 Algebraic approach

In the last section we obtained exact solutions of the KG oscillator in the

presence of minimal length uncertainty. Since the problem is exactly solvable
it is natural to examine it’s underlying symmetry. Here we shall show that
the problem has shape invariance symmetry and use the approach suggested
in [36] to obtain exact solutions in a purely algebraic fashion.
To utilize the shape invariance property we shall now try to factorize the
following Hamiltonian in the form

d2 d
H = −f (p) 2
+ g(p) + h(p) + c1 = CB (69)
dp dp

where c1 is a constant (to be determined later) and the operators B and C are
not necessarily self adjoint 1 . We consider these operators to be of the form

d
B = F (p) dp + W (p) + Ω(p)
(70)
d
C = −F (p) dp + W (p) − Ω(p)

From (70) it follows that

d2 d
CB = −F 2 (p) 2
−F (p)[F 0 (p)+2Ω(p)] −F (p)[W 0 (p)+Ω0 (p)]+W 2 (p)−Ω2 (p)
dp dp
(71)
Comparing (69) and (71) we get F (p), g(p) and an equation for W (p):

F (p) = (1 + βp2 )
i(µE + mc2 λ) (72)
Ω(p) = γp −
h̄(λ2 − µ2 )

dW c2 p 2 (µE + mc2 λ)2

(1 + βp2 ) + W 2 (p) = 2 2 + γ − + c1 (73)
dp h̄ (λ − µ2 ) h̄2 (λ2 − µ2 )2
1
Note that one can prove shape invariance of Eq.(58) using shape invariance property of
the potential (63) and the inverse transformation of (60).
Exact solutions of the Klein-Gordon equation T. K. Jana 18

To solve this Ricatti equation we now consider an ansatz for W (p):

W (p) = c2 p (74)

Then from Eq. (73) we get

(µE + mc2 )2 2 2 c2
− c 2 − γ − c 1 + p (c 2 − βc 2 − )=0 (75)
h̄2 (λ2 − µ2 )2 h̄2 (λ2 − µ2 )
It is now easy to see that the Eq. (75) is satisfied if
(µE + mc2 )2
c1 = − c2 − γ
h̄2 (λ2 − µ2 )2

r (76)
4c2
β+ β2 + h̄2 (λ2 −µ2 )
c2 = p
2
Therefore the operators B and C are obtained in terms of known quantity and
it can be shown that

B(λ1 )C(λ1 ) = C(λ2 )B(λ2 ) + R(λ1 ) (77)

where we have taken

λ1 = c2 , λi = c2 + (i − 1)β, R(λi ) = 2λi + β (78)

Now iterating (77) it follows that

n
X
 + c1 = R(λi ) (79)
i=0

Finally using (59) and (76) one obtains En and they are the same as in (66).

5 Conclusion
Here we have obtained exact solutions for KG equation (20) for a class of
(energy independent) vector and scalar potentials using the shape invariance
Exact solutions of the Klein-Gordon equation T. K. Jana 19

technique. It may also be noted that here we have considered shape invariance
based on translation of parameters. It would be interesting to examine the
possibility of obtaining exact solutions of KG equation for self similar poten-
tials.
In presence of a minimal length, we have obtained exact solutions of the KG
equation with linear vector and scalar potentials. We would like to mention
that apart from solving the KG equation we have also exploited the shape
invariance symmetry of the problem to obtain the spectrum. It would be in-
teresting to investigate other symmetries e.g, Lie algebraic symmetry of this
class of problems whenever the transformation (60) is invertible. It may also
be noted that here we have obtained the trigonometric potential (63) as a
consequence of the relation (51) and the choice of S(x̂), V (x̂). However this
is not the only deformation of the canonical commutation relation involving
x̂ and p̂. It may be interesting to search for some other choice of [x̂, p̂], S(x̂)
and V (x̂) which may eventually lead to other exactly solvable potentials e.g,
hyperbolic Pöschl Teller potential. We would also like to mention that higher
dimensional analogue of the system considered here may have applications in
phenomenology e.g, in the study of meson spectrum [41].
Finally, for both the cases it would be interesting to search for other vector and
scalar potentials for which exact or approximate solutions of the KG equation
can be obtained.

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Exact solutions of the Klein-Gordon equation T. K. Jana 23

n En+ s+
1 s+
2 En− s−
1 s−
2

0 1.83314 3.98281 3.049 −1.88921 3.61226 3.41955

1 2.99136 3.32952 1.70229 −3.09985 2.48214 2.54967
2 3.39932 2.96043 0.071382 −3.68852 1.32395 1.70786
Table 1. s± ± ±
1 , s2 and En for m = 0.25, S0 = 4 and V0 = 0.35

n En+ s+
1 s+
2 En− s−
1 s−
2

0 1.791 4.26304 2.76877 −1.90315 3.8953 3.13652

1 2.8921 3.71318 1.31863 −3.10908 2.87833 2.15348
Table 2. s± ± ±
1 , s2 and En f or m = 0.5, S0 = 4 and V0 = 0.35

n En+ A+ En− A−
0 1.08989 1.17139 − 1.22751 1.02626
1 1.58713 1.20252 − 1.6 1.00294
± ±
Table 3. En and A f or m = 1.6, S0 = 4 and V0 = 0.25

n En+ En−
0 1.36234 − 1.44984
1 2.39166 − 2.47916
2 3.10035 − 3.18785
Table 4. En± f or m = 0.5, S0 = 4
and V0 = 0.35