Past exam of the theoretical physics II course of the University of Cambridge 2019 2 c Solution 2026-10-18
The radial S wave vanishes at the hard surface, so outside the sphere . Comparison with givesThe hard-sphere S-wave scattering amplitude and cross section are thereforeThe three prominent features are the finite low-energy limit , the oscillations with exact zeros at for positive integers , and the decreasing envelope . The zero-energy value is four times the geometric area . Near zero the normalized cross section is . The large- fall here concerns the S wave alone; summing all partial waves gives a different high-energy total.
