Role of resonances in building cross sections: Comparison between the Mittag–Leffler and the T‐matrix Green function expansion approaches

Abstract

AbstractPeaks in collision cross sections are often interpreted as resonances. The complex dilation method, as well as other methods relying on analytic continuation of the scattering formalism, can be used to clarify whether these structures are true resonances in the sense that they are poles of the S‐matrix and the associated Green function. The performance of the Mittag–Leffler expansion and T‐matrix Green function expansion methods are formally and computationally compared. The two methods are applied to two model potentials. Eigenenergies, s‐wave residues, and cross sections are computed with both methods. The resonance contributions to the cross sections are further analyzed by removing the residue contributions from the Mittag–Leffler and Green function expansion sums, respectively. It is suggested that the contribution of a resonance to a cross section should be defined through its S‐matrix residue. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2007