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arXiv:hep-th/9510170 · Journal of Mathematical Physics

Quantum scattering theory in light of an exactly solvable model with rearrangement collisions

S. Varma, E. C. G. Sudarshan

Published Apr 1, 1996• 1 citation
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Abstract

We present an exactly solvable quantum field theory which allows rearrangement collisions. We solve the model in the relevant sectors and demonstrate the orthonormality and completeness of the solutions, and construct the S-matrix. In light of the exact solutions constructed, we discuss various issues and assumptions in quantum scattering theory, including the isometry of the Möller wave matrix, the normalization and completeness of asymptotic states, and the nonorthogonality of basis states. We show that these common assertions are not obtained in this model. We suggest a general formalism for scattering theory which overcomes these and other shortcomings and limitations of the existing formalisms in the literature.

DOI
10.1063/1.531476

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We present an exactly solvable quantum field theory which allows rearrangement collisions. We solve the model in the relevant sectors and demonstrate the orthonormality and completeness of the solutions, and construct the S-matrix. In light of the exact solutions constructed, we discuss various issues and assumptions in quantum scattering theory, including the isometry of the Möller wave matrix, the normalization and completeness of asymptotic states, and the nonorthogonality of basis states. We show that these common assertions are not obtained in this model. We suggest a general formalism for scattering theory which overcomes these and other shortcomings and limitations of the existing formalisms in the literature.
The most important physical aspects of quantum mechanics are interactions in bound systems and predictions relevant to particle scatterings. A special accent is placed upon the foundation of quantum scattering theory from the first principles of physics, without resorting to any free parameters. Such a complete theory, which is autonomously and consistently devised on a rigorous mathematical basis, represents a genuine modern candidate for a powerful predictor of real events in experiments. For modern scattering theory, the following two principal questions emerge: the existence and completeness of the Moller wave operators. They directly imply the unitarity of the S-matrix and the correctness of the boundary conditions. Such a general and versatile methodological concept largely surpasses the frames of scattering theory.
We derive the conditions which give a well-defined meaning to the mathematical expressions appearing in the current formal scattering theory. These conditions remove some restrictions that are usually imposed on the spectra of H and H0. By these conditions we can systematically discuss many problems, such as the equivalence between two kinds of S-matrices given by Heisenberg and Dyson respectively, or as the adiabatic theorem in the quantum field theory. The rearrangement collisions can be investigated from this view-point.
Scattering theory studies the behaviour of (quantum) systems over time and length scales which are very large, compared with the time or length that are characteristic of the interaction which affects them. The chapter begins with an outline of the basic problems of scattering theory, i.e. the existence of scattering states, their uniqueness, weak asymptotic completeness the existence of the scattering transformation, S , the reduction of S due to symmetries, the analyticity of S , asymptotic completeness and the existence of wave operators. After considering the Schrödinger equation for stationary states, the integral equation for scattering problems is derived and studied. The Born approximation and the Born series are presented, and the conditions which ensure convergence of the Born series are also discussed. Further topics are partial wave expansion, its convergence and the uniqueness of the solution satisfying the asymptotic condition, the Levinson theorem. Lastly, in the first part of the chapter, scattering theory from singular potentials is introduced, with emphasis on the polydromy of the wave function, following early work in the literature, and the general problems in the theory of resonances are studied. In the second part, we examine in detail a separable potential model, the occurrence of bound states in the completeness relationship, an excitable potential model and the unitarity of the Möller wave operator. Lastly, we study the survival amplitude associated with quantum decay transitions. Aims and problems of scattering theory Scattering theory is the branch of physics that is concerned with interacting systems on a scale of time and/or distance that is large compared with the scale of the interaction itself, and it provides the most powerful tool for studying the microscopic nature of the world.
The time-dependent theory of scattering is reformulated. In §1, it is developed on the basis of a new limiting process which is self-consistent, and the equivalence is shown of Heisenberg's S-matrix and Dyson's one, when the total Hamiltonian permits the existence of bound states. In §2, a theory of scattering of wave packet is proposed in conformity with the physical picture. The damping factor e−ε|t| is derived from the amplitude of the wave packet. In §3, the rearrangement scattering is treated on the basis of the wave packet formalism.
A general theoretical framework is developed for the treatment of a class of quantum field theories that are explicitly exactly solvable, but require the use of C*-algebraic techniques because time-dependent scattering theory cannot be constructed in any one natural representation of the observable algebra. The purpose is to exhibit mechanisms by which inequivalent representations of the observable algebra can arise in quantum field theory, in a setting free of other complications commonly associated with the specification of dynamics. One of two major results is the development of necessary and sufficient conditions for the concurrent unitary implementation of two automorphism groups in a class of quasifree representations of the algebra of the canonical commutation relations (CCR). The automorphism groups considered are induced by one-parameter groups of symplectic transformations on the classical phase space over which the Weyl algebra of the CCR is built; each symplectic group is conjugate by a fixed symplectic transformation to a one-parameter unitary group. The second result, an analog to the Birman–Belopol’skii theorem in two-Hilbert-space scattering theory, gives sufficient conditions for the existence of Mo/ller wave morphisms in theories with time-development automorphism groups of the above type. In a paper which follows, this framework is used to analyze a particular model system for which wave operators fail to exist in any natural representation of the observable algebra, but for which wave morphisms and an associated S matrix are easily constructed.