Scattering of Spin-1/2 Particles from Unpolarised Targets

Author

Klaus Bartschat
Don H. Madison, Missouri University of Science and TechnologyFollow

Abstract

A general method for describing the scattering of polarised spin-1/2 particles from unpolarised targets is presented. The reduced density matrix formalism is used to define a new set of parameters sigma _u, S _P, S_A, T_y, T_x, T_z, U _xz, and U_zx, which contain the maximum possible information about a scattering process, in which the target is unpolarised and only the scattered particles and their polarisation are observed. For the special case of scattering from targets with vanishing total angular momentum, the number of independent variables can be further reduced to the standard set of observables sigma , S, T and U given, for instance, by Kessler (1985). Numerical results for the new parameters are presented for inelastic electron scattering from xenon and mercury atoms.

Recommended Citation

K. Bartschat and D. H. Madison, "Scattering of Spin-1/2 Particles from Unpolarised Targets," Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, vol. 21, no. 14, pp. 2621 - 2634, Institute of Physics - IOP Publishing, Jul 1988.

The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1088/0953-4075/21/14/015

Department(s)

Physics

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

0953-4075

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 1988 Institute of Physics - IOP Publishing, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jul 1988