Reply to "Comment on 'Analytical wave functions for atomic quantum-defect theory'"

Abstract

The preceding paper, by Martin and Barrientos [Phys. Rev. A 43, 4061 (1991)], comments on our supersymmetry-inspired model of atomic physics. We relate this to other Comments [Rau, Phys. Rev. Lett. 56, 95 (1986) and Goodfriend, Phys. Rev. A 41, 1730 (1990)] and point out that, although the mathematics and physics of the 1974 Simons model [J. Chem. Phys. 60, 645 (1974)] is similar to ours, it is not identical. This is elucidated by explicitly comparing our symmetry-based approach to the more phenomenological approach of Martin and Barrientos.