Scattering framework for two particles with isotropic spin-orbit coupling applicable to all energies

Abstract

Previous work developed a K-matrix formalism applicable to positive energies for the scattering between two $s$-wave interacting particles with two internal states, isotropic spin-orbit coupling and vanishing center-of-mass momentum [H. Duan, L. You and B. Gao, Phys. Rev A {\bf{87}}, 052708 (2013)]. This work extends the formalism to the entire energy regime. Explicit solutions are obtained for the total angular momentum $J=0$ and $1$ channels. The behavior of the partial cross sections in the negative energy regime is analyzed in detail. We find that the leading contributions to the partial cross sections at the negative energy thresholds are governed by the spin-orbit coupling strength $k_{\text{so}}$ and the mass ratio. The fact that these contributions are independent of the two-body scattering length $a_s$ is a direct consequence of the effective reduction of the dimensionality, and hence of the density of states, near the scattering thresholds due to the single-particle spin-orbit coupling terms. The results are analytically continued to the energy regime where bound states exist. It is shown that our results are consistent with results obtained by alternative approaches. Our formulation, which can be regarded as an extension of the standard textbook partial wave decomposition, can be generalized to two-body systems with other types of spin-orbit coupling, including cases where the center-of-mass momentum does not vanish.