Use of Causality Conditions in Quantum Theory

Abstract

The limitations on scattering amplitudes imposed by causality requirements are deduced from the demand that the commutator of field operators vanish if the operators are taken at points with space-like separations. The problems of the scattering of spin-zero particles by a force center and the scattering of photons by a quantized matter field are discussed. The causality requirements lead in a natural way to the well-known dispersion relation of Kramers and Kronig. A new sum rule for the nuclear photoeffect is derived and the scattering of photons by nucleons is discussed.