Physical Review

A Note on Perturbation Theory as Applied to Collision Stimulated Processes

James N. Snyder, W. H. Furry

Published Aug 1, 1949• 1 citation

Abstract

If a particle which can decay spontaneously is subjected to collisions with other particles the transition probability may be changed. The calculation of such an effect by the usual time-dependent perturbation methods is complicated by the circumstance that energy can be conserved in some intermediate states, because of the possibility of elastic scattering. The perturbation calculation is here modified in such a way that the resulting expression for the whole transition probability does not contain any divergences or spurious effects. By suitable approximations the expression is separated into two parts, one of which gives the probability of elastic scattering followed by a spontaneous transition, and the other the true stimulated transition probability which causes a change in the lifetime.

DOI: 10.1103/physrev.76.359

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