Equivalent Two-Body Method for the Triton

A method for developing equivalent two-body problems for the binding energy of the triton has been derived from the variational principle. The method has been applied to two central-force problems. In the first, the exponential well of Rarita and Present is discussed and the method is shown to give excellent results. In the second, the central-force term in the L\'evy potential including the repulsive core is investigated. It is estimated that the L\'evy potential including the tensor term will give the correct order of binding energy to the triton.