Final State Interactions and the Effects of Potentials on Particle Reactions

In nuclear physics, it is well known that the electromagnetic (Coulomb) interaction between final state products can drastically effect particle reaction rates. Near thresholds, for example, nuclear alpha decay is suppressed while nuclear beta decay is enhanced by final state Coulomb interactions. Here we discuss high energy physics enhancement and/or suppression of reactions wherein the potentials must include weak and strong as well as electromagnetic interactions. Potentials due to the exchange of gluons and the exchange of a hypothetical Higgs particle are explicitly considered.