Born amplitude for a Yukawa potential
ID: born-amplitude-for-a-yukawa-potential
For , with real and , the first Born approximation gives the scattering amplitudeIndeed, orienting the polar axis along the momentum transfer gives the angular integral , and the remaining integral is . The differential scattering cross-section is .
The limit at fixed nonzero produces the Rutherford differential cross-section for a Coulomb potential. The unscreened interaction has long range, so this limiting calculation by itself does not establish the validity of a naive Born approximation to the full Rutherford scattering state. The exact Rutherford scattering amplitude has an additional phase, while its modulus agrees with the Rutherford differential cross-section.
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