Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

The Riemann Surface of the Scattering Amplitude

Journal Article · · Proceedings of the Royal Society. A. Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences

The Fredholm technique is used to study analytic properties of the scattering amplitude as a function of both the energy and the momentum transfer, for Schrodinger and Klein-Gordon scattering from cut-off potentials and potentials with exponential and Yakawa tails. The discussion is extended to the case with several discrete channels. Relativistic scattering of elementary particles is discussed. Conjectures concerning the Riemann surface of the amplitude for the elastic scattering of two identical particles are formulated, neglecting the production of further particles. With the use of the Mandelstam conjecture it is found that the Riemann "surface" belonging to the scattering amplitude as an analytic function of the two independent Mandelstam variables has at least eight "sheets". The analogy between potential scattering and perturbation theory suggests the existence of further branch points on the "unphysical" sheets, which would make the structure of the full Riemann "surface" very complicated. Poles representing bound and metastable states on the Riemann surface are discussed. The reality and unitarity conditions are formulated and their implications studied.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Birmingham, Eng.
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
NSA Number:
NSA-15-018967
OSTI ID:
4005754
Journal Information:
Proceedings of the Royal Society. A. Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Journal Name: Proceedings of the Royal Society. A. Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences Journal Issue: 1306 Vol. 261; ISSN 1364-5021
Publisher:
The Royal Society Publishing
Country of Publication:
Country unknown/Code not available
Language:
English

Similar Records

SINGULARITIES OF SCATTERING AMPLITUDES ON UNPHYSICAL SHEETS AND THEIR INTERPRETATION
Journal Article · Sat Jul 15 00:00:00 EDT 1961 · Physical Review (U.S.) Superseded in part by Phys. Rev. A, Phys. Rev. B: Solid State, Phys. Rev. C, and Phys. Rev. D · OSTI ID:4000137

Analytic properties of off-energy shell potential scattering amplitudes
Journal Article · Sun Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 1961 · Nuovo Cimento · OSTI ID:4813501

UNITARITY AND ANALYTICITY IN THE COMPLEX ENERGY PLANE OF GENERAL SCATTERING AMPLITUDES
Journal Article · Sun Dec 15 23:00:00 EST 1963 · Nuovo Cimento (Italy) Divided into Nuovo Cimento A and Nuovo Cimento B · OSTI ID:4090516