For real , conservation of the radial probability current, equivalently constancy of the radial Wronskian, equates the incoming and outgoing fluxes and gives
For a real potential, the regular radial solution depends on through . Comparing its asymptotic form at and therefore gives
The first identity places on the unit circle, so
for a real phase shift. Choosing the phase continuously, the second identity gives
These are the unitarity and reflection identities for a partial-wave S-matrix.