Mandelstam variables

For two-to-two scattering $A+B\to C+D$,They satisfy $s+t+u=m_A^2+m_B^2+m_C^2+m_D^2$ in units $c=1$.

With a specified ordering of external legs, this crossed channel carries the difference between an incoming and an outgoing energy-momentum vector. A one-particle exchange pole requires that difference to be on the exchanged particle's mass shell. Ordered amplitudes in one spatial dimension can label the crossed invariant using the difference of the two rapidity-parameterized external momenta; the external-leg convention fixes which crossed invariant is named $t$.

The direct channel combines the two incoming four-momentum vectors. A one-particle pole in this channel has the intermediate particle's squared mass equal to $s$. Imaginary rapidity differences can satisfy this mass relation for a bound state even though there is no pole at real physical scattering rapidity.