A Model of a Unitary S-Matrix for Peripheral Interactions

Abstract

In this discussion we are going to deal with particle scattering at a few GeV, say, 2 to 5 GeV. At these energies, we certainly will have to deal with a many-channel problem; however, one of the prominent features found in experiments is the abundance ( ~ 50%) of quasi-two-body final states: for example,

$$\begin{matrix} K^{+}p \to K^{*}N\\ \;\;\;\;\;\;\;\;\;\;\;\;KN^{*}\\ \;\;\;\;\;\;\;\;\;\;\;K^{*}N^{*} \end{matrix}$$

An immediate interest in these collisions arises from the fact that these reactions are used to establish baryon and meson spectra. Furthermore, these reactions can possibly be used to extract information on the couplings of these particles or resonances to each other; that is, on the form of the effective couplings and the values of the corresponding coupling constants.