Towards an understanding of discrete ambiguities in truncated partial wave analyses

Abstract

It is well known that the observables in a single-channel scattering problem remain invariant once the amplitude is multiplied by an overall energy- and angle-dependent phase. This invariance is called the continuum ambiguity and acts on the infinite partial wave set. It has also long been known that, in the case of a truncated partial wave set, another invariance exists, originating from the replacement of the roots of partial wave amplitudes with their complex conjugate values. This discrete ambiguity is also known as the Omelaenko-Gersten-type ambiguity. In this paper, we show that for scalar particles, discrete ambiguities are just a subset of continuum ambiguities with a specific phase and thus mix partial waves, as the continuum ambiguity does. We present the main features of both, continuum and discrete ambiguities, and describe a numerical method which establishes the relevant phase connection.