Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-short-options-paper-shared-by-prelims-and-parts-a-and-b-of-the-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2012/s18/2/3/solution

Apart from the finite forward limit, amplitude zeros obey , or , where . The first positive root is . Since the accessible range is ,
Thus there are no zeros for ; the first enters at the largest momentum transfer, , when .
For larger roots, lies just below , . Expanding gives . Keeping its leading term yields the requested diffraction estimate
Exactly, replace the numerator by the corresponding root . The displayed approximation is a large- root approximation: taking large at fixed low order does not make equal to . For example, the exact first angle at high is approximately , not .
Figure 1.
Born scattering form factor of a spherical constant potential
. The exact normalized amplitude and its first three zeros are shown. The asymptotic half-integer-pi locations are close estimates, with a visible low-order correction. Details.

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