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arXiv:physics/9712029 · Physical Review A

Space-time approach to scattering from many-body systems

R. Gähler, J. Felber, F. Mezei, Robert Golub

Published Jul 1, 1998• 41 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We present scattering from many-body systems in a new light. In place of the usual van Hove treatment, (applicable to a wide range of scattering processes using both photons and massive particles) based on plane waves, we calculate the scattering amplitude as a space-time integral over the scattering sample for an incident wave characterized by its correlation function, which results from the shaping of the wave field by the apparatus. Instrument resolution effects, seen as due to the loss of correlation caused by the path differences in the different arms of the instrument, are automatically included and analytic forms of the resolution function for different instruments are obtained. Each element of the apparatus is associated with a correlation length (or time). These correlation lengths, determined by the dimensions of the apparatus, are generally much smaller than these dimensions and larger than the wavelength. As is well known, these are the conditions for the validity of geometrical optics so that the conventional treatment, where the scattering is calculated by the van Hove plane-wave approach and the trajectories through the instrument are treated classically, is usually valid. In the present approach analytic expressions for the correlation functions are obtained. The intersection of the moving correlation volumes (those regions where the correlation functions are significant) associated with the different elements of the apparatus determines the maximum correlation lengths (times) that can be observed in a sample, and hence, the momentum (energy) resolution of the measurement. This geometrical picture of moving correlation volumes derived by our technique shows how the interaction of the scatterer with the wave field shaped by the apparatus proceeds in space and time. Matching of the correlation volumes so as to maximize the intersection region yields a transparent, graphical method of instrument design.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.58.280

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We present scattering from many-body systems in a new light. In place of the usual van Hove treatment, (applicable to a wide range of scattering processes using both photons and massive particles) based on plane waves, we calculate the scattering amplitude as a space-time integral over the scattering sample for an incident wave characterized by its correlation function, which results from the shaping of the wave field by the apparatus. Instrument resolution effects, seen as due to the loss of correlation caused by the path differences in the different arms of the instrument, are automatically included and analytic forms of the resolution function for different instruments are obtained. Each element of the apparatus is associated with a correlation length (or time). These correlation lengths, determined by the dimensions of the apparatus, are generally much smaller than these dimensions and larger than the wavelength. As is well known, these are the conditions for the validity of geometrical optics so that the conventional treatment, where the scattering is calculated by the van Hove plane-wave approach and the trajectories through the instrument are treated classically, is usually valid. In the present approach analytic expressions for the correlation functions are obtained. The intersection of the moving correlation volumes (those regions where the correlation functions are significant) associated with the different elements of the apparatus determines the maximum correlation lengths (times) that can be observed in a sample, and hence, the momentum (energy) resolution of the measurement. This geometrical picture of moving correlation volumes derived by our technique shows how the interaction of the scatterer with the wave field shaped by the apparatus proceeds in space and time. Matching of the correlation volumes so as to maximize the intersection region yields a transparent, graphical method of instrument design.
The conventional theory of neutron beams interacting with many-body systems treats the beam as a classical system, i.e. with its dynamical variables appearing in the quantum dynamics of the scattering process not as operators but only as c-numbers. Moreover, neutrons are described with plane waves, i.e. the concept of neutron's (finite) coherence length is here irrelevant. The same holds for electron, atom or X-ray scattering. This simplification results in the full decoupling of the probe particle's dynamics from the quantum dynamics of the scatterer---a well-known fact also reflected in the standard formalism of time-correlation functions (see textbooks). Making contact with modern quantum theoretical approaches (e.g., quantum entanglement, 'which-path detection' versus interference, von Neumann measurement, Week Values, etc.) new observable effects may be exposed and/or predicted, for instance, a momentum-transfer deficit and an intensity deficit in neutron scattering from protons of hydrogen-containing samples. 7
The scattering of a particle by a target with periodic time dependence is usually formulated in Floquet extended space. This leads to time-independent transition probabilities which correspond to the scattering of wave packets that are close to being monoenergetic. Because of the wide space extension of such packets, many oscillations take place during the time particle and target interact. The purpose of this study consists in showing that the scattering amplitudes can also be used to describe the way the particle feels the instantaneous configuration of the target at the time of the collision. The application is made to an oscillating barrier in one dimension. Several tests of the formalism validate the analysis, by changing either the initial position of the wave packet, or the phase of the particle–target interaction. Two equivalent necessary conditions can be formulated to recover the results of standard scattering theory. One is that no energies differing by at least one quantum are present in the energy range effectively covered by the initial wave packet. The other is that there is appreciable self-overlapping of the wave packet after one period of oscillation.
In the analysis of neutron scattering measurements of condensed matter structure, it normally suffices to treat the incident and scattered neutron beams as if composed of incoherent distributions of plane waves with wavevectors of different magnitudes and directions which are taken to define an instrumental resolution. However, despite the wide-ranging applicability of this conventional treatment, there are cases in which the wave function of an individual neutron in the beam must be described more accurately by a spatially localized packet, in particular with respect to its transverse extent normal to its mean direction of propagation. One such case involves the creation of orbital angular momentum (OAM) states in a neutron via interaction with a material device of a given size. It is shown in the work reported here that there exist two distinct measures of coherence of special significance and utility for describing neutron beams in scattering studies of materials in general. One measure corresponds to the coherent superposition of basis functions and their wavevectors which constitute each individual neutron packet state function whereas the other measure can be associated with an incoherent distribution of mean wavevectors of the individual neutron packets in a beam. Both the distribution of the mean wavevectors of individual packets in the beam as well as the wavevector components of the superposition of basis functions within an individual packet can contribute to the conventional notion of instrumental resolution. However, it is the transverse spatial extent of packet wavefronts alone that determines the area within which a coherent scattering process can occur in the first place. This picture is shown to be consistent with standard quantum theory. It is also demonstrated that these two measures of coherence can be distinguished from one another experimentally.
Abstract We present Feynman’s path integral derivation of the Schrödinger equation. The van Hove formulation of non-relativistic scattering is presented. We then give a full quantum mechanical treatment of non-relativistic scattering. Both the interaction of the beams with the apparatus and the scattering process itself are treated quantum mechanically. In the spirit of Schrödinger, particle trajectories do not appear, with all of the physics being contained in the phases of the wave function.
We present a universal coupled-mode-theory treatment of free-space scattering of waves from resonant objects. The range of applicability of the presented approach is fairly broad: it can be used for almost any linear wave system, as long as the resonant scatterer has either three-dimensional (3D) spherical or 2D cylindrical symmetry, or else is sufficiently smaller than the resonant wavelength of the incident wave. The presented framework, while being intuitive and analytically simple, can nevertheless provide quantitatively very accurate modeling of scattering cross sections, absorption cross sections, and many other quantities of interest. We illustrate this approach by showing how it applies to the particular examples of scattering of light from spherically symmetric resonant objects and atoms, and scattering of neutrons off nuclei.