English

Quantum scattering on a delta potential in ghost-free theory

High Energy Physics - Theory 2018-06-26 v2 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology Quantum Physics

Abstract

We discuss the quantum-mechanical scattering of a massless scalar field on a δ\delta-potential in a ghost-free theory and obtain analytic solutions for the scattering coefficients. Due to the non-locality of the ghost-free theory the transmission coefficient tends to unity for frequencies much larger than the inverse scale of non-locality, even for infinitely strong potentials. At the same time there exists a critical strength of the δ\delta-potential barrier below which there is always a frequency that is totally reflected. These scattering properties in ghost-free theories are quite generic and distinguish them from local field theories. Moreover, we study quasi-normal states that are present for the δ\delta-potential well. In the limit of vanishing non-locality, we recover the standard results of local field theory.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1805.01875,
  title  = {Quantum scattering on a delta potential in ghost-free theory},
  author = {Jens Boos and Valeri P. Frolov and Andrei Zelnikov},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1805.01875},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

v2: 7 pages, 2 figures, matches published version; v1: 6 pages, 2 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-23T01:45:30.713Z