A simple coordinate space approach to three-body problems — Examples: Halo nucleus and double-λ hypernucleus

We show how to treat the dynamics of an asymmetric three-body system consisting of one heavy and two identical light particles in simple coordinate space variational approach. The method is constructive and gives an efficient way of resolving a three-body system to an effective two-body system. It is illustrated by explaining the structural properties of some nuclei of current interest, namely halo nuclei and double-λ hypernuclei. The ansatz used here may be of value in a number of three particle problems of similar nature.