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Description of resonances within the rigged Hilbert space

De la Madrid, R

Published Jul 24, 2006• 6 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

The spectrum of a quantum system has in general bound, scattering and resonant parts. The Hilbert space includes only the bound and scattering spectra, and discards the resonances. One must therefore enlarge the Hilbert space to a rigged Hilbert space, within which the physical bound, scattering and resonance spectra are included on the same footing. In these lectures, I will explain how this is done.

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The spectrum of a quantum system has in general bound, scattering and resonant parts. The Hilbert space includes only the bound and scattering spectra, and discards the resonances. One must therefore enlarge the Hilbert space to a rigged Hilbert space, within which the physical bound, scattering and resonance spectra are included on the same footing. In these lectures, I will explain how this is done.
It is shown that the natural framework for the solutions of any Schrödinger equation whose spectrum has a continuous part is the rigged Hilbert space (RHS) rather than just the Hilbert space. The difficulties of using only the Hilbert space to handle unbounded Schrödinger Hamiltonians whose spectrum has a continuous part are disclosed. Those difficulties are overcome by using an appropriate RHS. The RHS is able to associate an eigenket with each energy in the spectrum of the Hamiltonian, regardless of whether the energy belongs to the discrete or to the continuous part of the spectrum. The collection of eigenkets corresponding to both discrete and continuous spectra forms a basis system that can be used to expand any physical wavefunction. Thus the RHS treats discrete energies (discrete spectrum) and scattering energies (continuous spectrum) on the same footing.
It is shown that the natural framework for the solutions of any Schrödinger equation whose spectrum has a continuous part is the Rigged Hilbert Space rather than just the Hilbert space. The difficulties of using only the Hilbert space to handle unbounded Schrödinger Hamiltonians whose spectrum has a continuous part are disclosed. Those difficulties are overcome by using an appropriate Rigged Hilbert Space (RHS). The RHS is able to associate an eigenket to each energy in the spectrum of the Hamiltonian, regardless of whether the energy belongs to the discrete or to the continuous part of the spectrum. The collection of eigenkets corresponding to both discrete and continuous spectra forms a basis system that can be used to expand any physical wave function. Thus the RHS treats discrete energies (discrete spectrum) and scattering energies (continuous spectrum) on the same footing. Typeset using REVTEX 1
The problem of decaying states and resonances is examined within the framework of scattering theory in a rigged Hilbert space formalism. The stationary free,’’in,’’ and ’’out’’ eigenvectors of formal scattering theory, which have a rigorous setting in rigged Hilbert space, are considered to be analytic functions of the energy eigenvalue. The value of these analytic functions at any point of regularity, real or complex, is an eigenvector with eigenvalue equal to the position of the point. The poles of the eigenvector families give origin to other eigenvectors of the Hamiltonian: the singularities of the ’’out’’ eigenvector family are the same as those of the continued S matrix, so that resonances are seen as eigenvectors of the Hamiltonian with eigenvalue equal to their location in the complex energy plane. Cauchy theorem then provides for expansions in terms of ’’complete’’ sets of eigenvectors with complex eigenvalues of the Hamiltonian. Applying such expansions to the survival amplitude of a decaying state, one finds that resonances give discrete contributions with purely exponential time behavior; the background is of course present, but explicitly separated. The resolvent of the Hamiltonian, restricted to the nuclear space appearing in the rigged Hilbert space, can be continued across the absolutely continuous spectrum; the singularities of the continuation are the same as those of the ’’out’’ eigenvectors. The free, ’’in’’ and ’’out’’ eigenvectors with complex eigenvalues and those corresponding to resonances can be approximated by physical vectors in the Hilbert space, as plane waves can. The need for having some further physical information in addition to the specification of the total Hamiltonian is apparent in the proposed framework. The formalism is applied to the Lee–Friedrichs model and to the scattering of a spinless particle by a local central potential.
There is compelling evidence that, when a continuous spectrum is present, the natural mathematical setting for quantum mechanics is the rigged Hilbert space rather than just the Hilbert space. In particular, Dirac's bra-ket formalism is fully implemented by the rigged Hilbert space rather than just by the Hilbert space. In this paper, we provide a pedestrian introduction to the role the rigged Hilbert space plays in quantum mechanics, by way of a simple, exactly solvable example. The procedure will be constructive and based on a recent publication. We also provide a thorough discussion on the physical significance of the rigged Hilbert space.
Within the rigged Hilbert space formulation of quantum mechanics idealized resonances (without background) are described by generalized eigenvectors of an essentially self-adjoint Hamiltonian with complex eigenvalue and a Breit–Wigner energy distribution. This establishes the link between the S matrix description of resonances by a pole and the usual description of states by vectors, overcomes theoretical problems connected with the deviation from exponential law and simplifies the calculation of the decay rate formula.
Abstract. There is compelling evidence that, when continuous spectrum is present, the natural mathematical setting for Quantum Mechanics is the rigged Hilbert space rather than just the Hilbert space. In particular, Dirac’s bra-ket formalism is fully implemented by the rigged Hilbert space rather than just by the Hilbert space. In this paper, we provide a pedestrian introduction to the role the rigged Hilbert space plays in Quantum Mechanics, by way of a simple, exactly solvable example. The procedure will be constructive and based on a recent publication. We also provide a thorough discussion on the physical significance of the rigged Hilbert space. PACS numbers: 03.65.-w, 02.30.HqThe RHS in Quantum Mechanics 2 1.