Open Access

Gerald Grawert, Joachim Petzold

• An alternative formulation is presented of the formal theory of multi-channel scattering in nonrelativistic quantum mechanics. We start by defining spaces of state vectors, where two particles either stay together or separate in the limit t →+∞ (or — ∞), when the state vector develops in time by e–i H t (H is the complete Hamiltonian of the n-particle system). A channel is defined as a space of state vectors with the following property: Developing in time by e-i H t they asymptotically describe a state of the n-particle system, where the particles are grouped in fragments. Defining a Hamiltonian Hγ for each channel, in which—compared to H—the interactions acting between particles from different fragments are missing, it is physically plausible that lim eiH e—iHt Ψ exists for vectors Ψ in the channel. Having discussed the limit vectors (asymptotic states), the S-matrix formalism can be introduced as usual. Finally the introduction of the exclusion principle is discussed.