An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
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In physics and mathematics an a priori assumption that is used to establish the form of an equation or a system of equations. The ansatz, which is verified later by the result, is meant to facilitate the solution. → Bethe ansatz.

From Ger. Ansatz "attempt, approach, beginning."

An → ansatz initially used to deal with → antiferromagnetism in a quantum system. It has been generalized to various quantum → n-body problems.

First introduced by Hans Bethe (1906-2005), → bethe; → ansatz.