English

Replacing the Breit-Wigner amplitude by the complex delta function to describe resonances

Quantum Physics 2010-11-09 v1 Mathematical Physics math.MP Nuclear Theory

Abstract

Whenever the Breit-Wigner amplitude appears in a calculation,there are many instances (e.g., Fermi's two-level system and the Weisskopf-Wigner approximation) where energy integrations are extended from the scattering spectrum of the Hamiltonian to the whole real line. Such extensions are performed in order to obtain a desirable, causal result. In this paper, we recall several of those instances and show that substituting the Breit-Wigner amplitude by the complex delta function allows us to recover such desirable results without having to extend energy integrations outside of the scattering spectrum.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1005.1290,
  title  = {Replacing the Breit-Wigner amplitude by the complex delta function to describe resonances},
  author = {R. de la Madrid},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1005.1290},
  year   = {2010}
}

Comments

Invited, refereed contribution to the proceedings of the YKIS2009 workshop, Kyoto, Japan.

R2 v1 2026-06-21T15:20:03.629Z