Eikonal Scattering at Strong Coupling

Eikonal Scattering at Strong CouplingIn this dissertation we calculate amplitudes with bound states in the regime of fixed energy and small momentum transfer. We formulate the elastic scattering problem in terms of many body path integrals, familiar from quantum mechanics. Then we invoke the semiclassical JWKB approximation, where the path integral is dominated by classical paths. The dynamics in the semiclassical regime are strongly coupled, as found by Halpern and Siegel. When the

In this dissertation we calculate amplitudes with bound states in the regime of fixed energy and small momentum transfer. We formulate the elastic scattering problem in terms of many-body path integrals, familiar from quantum mechanics. Then we invoke the semiclassical JWKB approximation, where the path integral is dominated by classical paths. The dynamics in the semiclassical regime are strongly coupled, as found by Halpern and Siegel. When the momentum transfer is small, the classical paths are simple straight lines and the resulting semiclassical amplitudes display a spectrum of bound states that agrees with the spectrum found by solving wave equations with potentials. In this work we study the bound states of matter particles with various types of interactions, including electromagnetic and gravitational interactions.