4/24/22, 8:47 PM Scattering in the Center of Mass Frame

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Scattering in the Center of Mass Frame

Let us now consider scattering due to the collision of two particles. We shall
restrict our discussion to
particles which interact via conservative central
forces. It turns out that scattering looks particularly simple
when
viewed in the center of mass frame. Let us, therefore, start our investigation
by considering two-
particle scattering in the center of mass frame.

As before, the first particle is of mass , and is located at position

vector , whereas the second particle

is of mass ,
and is located at .
By definition, there is zero net linear momentum in the center of mass

frame at all times. Hence, if the first particle approaches the collision
point with momentum then the

second must approach

with momentum . Likewise, after the collision, if the
first particle recedes from

the collision point with momentum then the second must recede with momentum --see Figure 21.

Furthermore, since the interaction force is

conservative, the total kinetic energy before and after the collision
must
be the same. It follows that the magnitude of the final momentum
vector, , is equal to the magnitude

of the initial momentum vector, . Because of this, the collision event is completely specified
once the

angle through which the

first particle is scattered is given. Of course, in the center of mass frame, the
second particle
is scattered through the same angle--see Figure 21.

Figure 21:
A collision viewed in the center of mass frame.

Suppose that the two particles interact via the potential , where
is the distance separating the

particles. As we have seen, the two-body

problem sketched in Figure 21 can be converted into the
equivalent
one-body problem sketched in Figure 22. In this
equivalent problem, a particle of mass

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is scattered
in the fixed potential , where is now the distance from

the origin.
The vector position of the particle in the equivalent problem corresponds to the relative position
vector in the original problem.
It follows that the angle through which the particle is scattered in

the equivalent
problem is the same as the scattering angle in the original problem.

Figure 22:
The one-body equivalent to the previous figure.

The scattering angle, , is largely

determined by the so-called impact parameter, , which is the
distance
of closest approach of the two particles in the absence of an
interaction potential. In the equivalent problem,
is the distance of
closest approach to the origin in the absence of an interaction
potential--see Figure 22. If
then we have a head-on collision. In this case, we expect
the two particles to reverse direction after
colliding: i.e., we expect . Likewise, if is large then we expect the two particles
to miss one
another entirely, in which case . It follows that the
scattering angle, , is a decreasing function of the
impact parameter,
.

Suppose that the polar coordinates of the particle in the equivalent problem are . Let the particle

approach the origin from the direction

, and attain its closest distance to the origin when
.
From symmetry, the angle in Figure 22 is equal to the angle . However, from simple geometry,

. Hence,

(340)

Now, by analogy with Equation (267), the conserved total energy in the equivalent
problem, which can
easily be shown to be the same as the total energy in
the original problem, is given by

(341)

where , and is the angular momentum per unit mass in the

equivalent problem. It is easily seen
that

(342)

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where is the approach velocity in the equivalent problem

at large . It follows that

(343)

The above equation can be rearranged to

give

(344)

Integration yields

(345)

Here, , where is the distance of closest approach. Since, by symmetry,

, it follows from Equation (344) that

(346)

Equations (340) and (345) enable us to calculate the

function for a given interaction potential, ,

and a
given total energy, , of the two particles in the center of mass frame. The function
tells us

which impact parameter corresponds to which scattering angle,

and vice versa.

Instead of two particles, suppose that we now have two counter-propagating beams of identical particles
(with the same properties as the
two particles described above) which scatter one another via binary
collisions. What
is the angular distribution of the scattered particles?
Consider pairs of particles whose
impact parameters lie in the range to . These particles are scattered in such a manner that their

scattering
angles lie in the range to , where
is determined from inverting the function ,

and

(347)

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Incidentally, we must take the modulus of because is

a decreasing function of .

Assuming, as seems reasonable, that the scattering

is azimuthally symmetric, the range of solid angle into
which
the particles are scattered is

(348)

Finally, the cross-sectional area of the annulus through which incoming

particles must pass if they are to
have impact parameters in the
range to is

(349)

The previous two equations allow us to define the differential scattering

cross-section:

(350)

The differential scattering cross-section has units of area per steradian,

and specifies the effective target area
for scattering into a given
range of solid angle. For two uniform beams scattering
off one another, the
differential scattering cross-section thus effectively specifies the probability of scattering into a given range
of
solid angle. The total scattering cross-section is the integral
of the differential cross-section over all solid
angles,

(351)

and measures the effective target area for scattering in any direction. Thus, if the flux of particles per unit
area per unit time, otherwise known as the intensity, of the two beams is , then the number of particles of a
given type scattered
per unit time is simply .

Let us now calculate the scattering cross-section for the following

very simple interaction potential:

(352)

This is the interaction potential of impenetrable spheres which only

exert a force on one another when they
are in physical contact (e.g., billiard balls). If the particles in the first beam have
radius , and the particles

in the second beam have radius ,

then . In other words, the centers of two particles, one

from either
beam, can never be less than a distance apart, where
is the sum of their radii (since the
particles
are impenetrable spheres).

Equations (340), (345), and (352)

yield

(353)

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The above formula can be rearranged to give

(354)

Note that

(355)

Hence, Equations (350) and (355) yield

(356)

We thus conclude that when two beams of impenetrable spheres

collide, in the center of mass frame, the
particles in the two beams have an equal probability of being scattered in any direction. The total scattering
cross-section is

(357)

Obviously, this result makes a lot of sense--the total scattering cross-section

for two impenetrable spheres is
simply the area of a circle
whose radius is the sum of the radii of the two spheres.

Let us now consider scattering by an inverse-square interaction force

whose potential takes the form

(358)

It follows from Equations (345) and (346) that

(359)

where , and

(360)

Integration yields

(361)

Hence, from Equation (340), we obtain

(362)
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The above equation can be rearranged to give

(363)

Thus,

(364)

Finally, using Equation (350), we get

(365)

There are a number of things to note about the above formula. First, the
scattering cross-section is
proportional to . This means that
repulsive ( ) and attractive ( ) inverse-square interaction

forces
of the same strength give rise to identical angular distributions of scattered
particles. Second, the
scattering cross-section is proportional to .
This means that inverse-square interaction forces are much
more effective at scattering low energy, rather than high energy, particles.
Finally, the differential scattering
cross-section is proportional to
. This means that, with an inverse-square
interaction force, the

overwhelming majority of
``collisions'' consist of small angle scattering events (i.e., ).

Let us now consider a specific case. Suppose that we have particles

of electric charge scattering off

particles of the same charge. The

interaction potential due to the Coulomb force between the particles
is
simply

(366)

Thus, it follows from Equation (365) [with ]

that the differential scattering cross-section

takes the form

(367)

This very famous formula is known as the Rutherford scattering cross-section, since it was first derived by
Earnst Rutherford for use in his
celebrated -particle scattering experiment.

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Note, finally, that if we try to integrate the Rutherford formula to obtain

the total scattering cross-section
then we find that the integral is divergent,
due to the very strong increase in as . This

implies that the Coulomb potential (or any

other inverse-square-law potential)
has an effectively infinite
range. In practice, however, an electric
charge is generally surrounded by charges of the opposite sign which
shield the Coulomb potential of the charge beyond a certain distance.
This shielding effect allows the charge
to have a finite total
scattering cross-section (for the scattering of other electric charges). However, the total
scattering cross-section of the charge
depends (albeit, logarithmically) on the shielding distance, and, hence,
on the
nature and distribution of the charges surrounding it.

Next: Scattering in the Laboratory

Up: Two-Body Dynamics
Previous: Binary Star Systems
Richard Fitzpatrick
2011-03-31

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