A stochastic variational method for few-body systems

A detailed description of the stochastic variational method (SVM) suggested recently for solving the few-body problem in quantum mechanics is given. Results obtained with the SVM in a randomized gaussian basis are compared with the analogous results of other authors. It is shown that the matrix elements of the Hamiltonian for all conventional forms of the N-N potentials (and for the Coulomb potential too) in the randomized gaussian basis are evaluated fully analytically. The asymptotic behaviour of the variational functions obtained is studied.