2 2 D ec 1 99 6 Three – Body Configuration Space Calculations with Hard Core Potentials ∗

We present a mathematically rigorous method suitable for solving three-body bound state and scattering problems when the inter–particle interaction is of a hard–core nature. The proposed method is a variant of the Boundary Condition Model and it has been employed to calculate the binding energies for a system consisting of three 4He atoms. Two realistic He–He interactions of Aziz and collaborators, have been used for this purpose. The results obtained compare favorably with those previously obtained by other methods. We further used the model to calculate, for the first time, the ultra-low energy scattering phase shifts. This study revealed that our method is ideally suited for three-body molecular calculations where the practically hard–core of the inter–atomic potential gives rise to strong numerical inaccuracies that make calculations for these molecules cumbersome. PACS numbers: 02.60.Nm, 21.45.+v, 34.40.-m, 36.40.+d