Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2009/ii/paper-2/34d/solution

Assume the physical potential is real, as required for the stated conjugation identity, and use the regular radial solution and its analytic continuation. The differential equation depends on , so exchanging and exchanges the outgoing and incoming coefficients of the same regular solution. Their ratio consequently gives . Complex conjugation gives a solution at and exchanges those coefficients, so .
For real , , hence with real phase. The first identity makes the phase odd modulo ; one can choose odd branches on paired nonzero intervals. A continuous odd branch through zero additionally requires , excluding a threshold-resonance exception. For the given rational expression, which has , choose
Its small- behavior is . Thus
A zero of the continued means that the outgoing coefficient vanishes, leaving an incoming-only asymptotic solution. It is paired by with a pole at the opposite wave number. The displayed zeros are and . Genuine bound-state poles on the positive imaginary axis correspond to negative energies and decaying regular solutions; their opposite zeros encode the same spectral information. A bare continued pole outside the physical analyticity region need not be a bound state, so no additional classification of the two poles follows merely from the rational expression without further potential assumptions.

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