Three-body unitarity with isobars revisited

Abstract

The particle exchange model of hadron interactions can be used to describe three-body scattering under the isobar assumption. In this study we start from the 3 → 3 scattering amplitude for spinless particles, which contains an isobar-spectator scattering amplitude. Using a Bethe-Salpeter Ansatz for the latter, we derive a relativistic three-dimensional scattering equation that manifestly fulfills three-body unitarity and two-body unitarity for the sub-amplitudes. This property holds for energies above breakup and also in the presence of resonances in the sub-amplitudes.