Multiple Elastic Scattering and Radiation Damping. I

Abstract

The problem of potential scattering by a number of similar scatterers is reformulated so that the potential is eliminated from the equations and replaced by a function which characterizes the scattering properties of the individual scatterer. The resulting equations can be used for the more general case where the single-scattering process is not describable by a potential, e.g., absorption or—to a certain extent—inelastic scattering. A solution of the equations by iteration is considered and compared with Born's approximation. As an application, the second approximation for the scattering of thermal neutron by a small crystal is calculated.