Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2015/iii/paper-76/2/a/solution

Take the same convention and an outgoing field. Define the scattering potential with the positive-contrast sign,
The outgoing Green function for the three-dimensional Helmholtz equation is
Thus the Lippmann-Schwinger equation has a plus sign:
Replacing the total field inside the integral by the incident field gives the Born approximation for scalar wave scattering
More generally, iterating the integral equation gives the Born series ; its first term is the boxed expression. A sufficient convergence condition is on the chosen space of fields in , and accurate single-scattering truncation needs the neglected terms to be small. Weak refractive contrast is useful, but for a sufficiently large or resonant scatterer it is not by itself a guarantee of negligible multiple scattering.

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