Abstract
This paper provides the mathematical tools for addressing issues of two kinds of causality in relativistic scattering theory: general causality, i.e., an effect can only be measured after its cause, and Einstein causality, i.e., no propagation of probability outside of the forward light cone. Starting from Wigner's unitary irreducible representations of the Poincaré group for noninteracting, one particle states, we describe the mathematical tools necessary to describe scattering states, the Lippmann-Schwinger Dirace kets, and to describe resonances and decaying states, the relativistic Gamow ket. An important step for their derivations is the Hardy space hypothesis. Investigating the transformation properties of scattering and resonance states under the dynamical Poincaré semigroup reveals that both kinds of causality result from this hypothesis about nature of the spaces of states and observables.
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Harshman, N.L. Representations of the Poincaré Semigroup and Relativistic Causality. International Journal of Theoretical Physics 42, 2357–2370 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:IJTP.0000005962.73636.3e
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:IJTP.0000005962.73636.3e