Coulomb scattering in the massless Nelson model IV. Atom-electron scattering

TL;DR

This paper constructs and analyzes scattering states involving atoms and electrons in the massless Nelson model, demonstrating their asymptotic behavior and clustering properties in the weak coupling regime.

Contribution

It provides a rigorous construction of atom-electron scattering states, including sharp estimates on ground state derivatives, extending previous work on atom-atom and electron-photon scattering.

Findings

Successful construction of atom-electron scattering states

Demonstration of asymptotic clustering into individual particles

Development of techniques for sharp derivative estimates of ground states

Abstract

We consider the massless Nelson model with two types of massive particles which we call atoms and electrons. The atoms interact with photons via an infrared regular form-factor and thus they are Wigner-type particles with sharp mass-shells. The electrons have an infrared singular form-factor and thus they are infraparticles accompanied by soft-photon clouds correlated with their velocities. In the weak coupling regime we construct scattering states of one atom and one electron, and demonstrate their asymptotic clustering into individual particles. The proof relies on the Cook's argument, clustering estimates, and the non-stationary phase method. The latter technique requires sharp estimates on derivatives of the ground state wave functions of the fiber Hamiltonians of the model, which were proven in the earlier papers of this series. Although we rely on earlier studies of the atom-atom and electron-photon scattering in the Nelson model, the paper is written in a self-contained manner. A perspective on the open problem of the electron-electron scattering in this model is also given.