Potential problems with interpolating fields

Abstract

A potential can have features that do not reflect the dynamics of the system it describes but rather arise from the choice of interpolating fields used to define it. This is illustrated using a toy model of scattering with two coupled channels. A Bethe-Salpeter amplitude is constructed which is a mixture of the waves in the two channels. The potential derived from this has a strong repulsive core, which arises from the admixture of the closed channel in the wave function and not from the dynamics of the model.