A Note on the Scattering of Electrons from Atomic Hydrogen

Abstract

The distortion of atomic hydrogen by a slowly moving electron at a large distance from the center of the atom is examined. The problem is the initial phase of a previously described method for the calculation of electron scattering which takes this distortion into account. The initial (static) problem is solved analytically and extended to include higher order effects of the interaction of the electron with the atomic cloud. The construction of a wave function to describe scattering starting from the solution of the static problem is clarified. This yields as an incidental result a new approximation of the second order perturbation energy associated with the above distortion. A short discussion of the present experimental results for this scattering process is included.