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Critique of Breit-Wigner resonance scattering

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2026-05-28 v1

Abstract

In the standard Breit-Wigner approach to scattering the phase shift is to have a form tanδBW=Γ1/(E1E)\tan\delta_{\rm BW} =\Gamma_1/(E_1-E) at a real energy resonance. This leads to complex energy poles in the scattering amplitude at EBW=E1iΓ1E_{\rm BW}=E_1-i\Gamma_1, poles that are identified with unstable physical particles. By solving the square well scattering problem we identify some challenges to this approach. We find that setting tanδBW=Γ1/(E1E)\tan\delta_{\rm BW} =\Gamma_1/(E_1-E) is not always a good description of the real energy scattering amplitude, that Γ1\Gamma_1 can be negative, that EBWE_{\rm BW} is not in fact an energy eigenvalue (and thus not a physical particle), and that states that decay in energy possess spatial wave functions that unacceptably grow exponentially. All of this is resolved by noting that because of its antilinear PTPT symmetry solutions to the square well Schr\"odinger equation appear in complex conjugate energy pairs E=E2iΓ2E_{\mp}=E_2\mp i \Gamma_2 with EEBWE_- \neq E_{\rm BW}, doing so in a way that gives a time independent probability amplitude that neither grows nor decays in time or space, and leads to just one now observable physical resonance not two.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2605.28756,
  title  = {Critique of Breit-Wigner resonance scattering},
  author = {Philip D. Mannheim},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.28756},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

10 pages. Revtex4