Extracting scattering phase shifts in higher partial waves from lattice QCD calculations

L\"uscher's method is routinely used to determine meson-meson, meson-baryon, and baryon-baryon s-wave scattering amplitudes below inelastic thresholds from lattice QCD calculations---presently at unphysical light-quark masses. In this work we review the formalism and develop the requisite expressions to extract phase shifts describing meson-meson scattering in partial waves with angular momentum l≤6 and $l=9$. The implications of the underlying cubic symmetry, and strategies for extracting the phase shifts from lattice QCD calculations, are presented, along with a discussion of the signal-to-noise problem that afflicts the higher partial waves.