Finite-volume effects in moving frames

Abstract

We determine the quantization condition for the energy levels of two interacting particles in a finite box in a ``moving frame'', i.e. one in which the total momentum of pions is non-zero. This condition is valid up to corrections which fall exponentially withe the box size, and holds only below the inelastic threshold. It is derived using field theoretic methods, using a generalization of previous summation formulae relating sums and integrals over momenta. The result agrees with that obtained earlier by Rummakainen and Gottlieb using a relativistic quantum mechanical approach. Technically, we expand the finite-volume four-point Green function in terms of the infinite-volume Bethe-Salpeter kernel, and determine the position of the poles. The final result is written in terms of the two-pion scattering phase shift. Our result can be used to facilitate the determination of the scattering phase shift, and can be used to generalize the Lellouch-Lüscher formula relating finite-volume two-particle matrix elements to those in infinite volume.