Group theory approach to scattering (Q595037)

It is shown that for systems whose bound states solutions are describable by representations of a compact group, the scattering states are obtained by an analytic continuation to the continuous representations of a corresponding non-compact group. This is demonstrated explicitely for certain classes of soluble potentials which include ones of practical interest such as the Morse and Pöschl-Teller potentials. For these potentials, the Hamiltonian can also be expressed as the Casimir of a certain group, calles the potential group, for which a given representation contains eigenstates belonging to different values of the potential strength. The Casimir spectrum has a discrete part and a continuous part corresponding to the bound and scattering states, respectively. The latter group can be used to calculate the scattering matrix algebraically. This suggests that an algebraic treatment of scattering problems similar to that of bound state problems may be possible.