A Unitary Fixed Point Away from Threshold: Momentum-Surface EFT for Strong Mixing

Abstract

Radiative capture in a non-relativistic system can become non-perturbative even when the underlying transition interaction is weak. We demonstrate this mechanism in a simple quantum-mechanical two-channel model with a systematic power counting, where strong mixing between scattering and bound states develops in a narrow region around a finite momentum $k_0$, leading to a perturbative violation of unitarity. In this regime, the enhanced contributions factorize, reducing the dynamics to a free scattering state interacting through a strong local coupling. Under RG evolution in the factorization scale, this local interaction approaches a unitary fixed point, analogous to that of systems with an anomalously large scattering length. This motivates an EFT organized around the finite-momentum surface $|\mathbf{k}|=k_0$, describing fermions at unitarity with a linear dispersion relation. The resummation resulting from the EFT restores unitarity and provides a systematic expansion for both elastic scattering and radiative capture.

Comments: 56 pages, 5 figures