Two-atom neutron diffraction selection 2026-10-18
Choose a one-dimensional crystal with cell translation and two atoms per cell at and . Here is an intracell displacement, distinct from the interplanar spacing above. In a single-scattering approximation, a row of cells has scattering amplitudeThe sum selects reciprocal lattice positions as becomes large. At these positions, the two-site crystal basis structure factor and its squared magnitude areConsequently gives even reflections of strength and extinguishes the odd reflections. Choosing , instead gives and : the odd/even ratio is . Equal atomic numbers would not establish equal if the isotopes differ. The figure below plots these chosen coefficients, without assigning them to actual elements. Missing reflections can encode destructive wave interference within a cell, not the absence of matter at a site.
Two-body decay phase space 2026-10-05
This total decay-width formula applies in the parent's rest frame when the squared scattering amplitude is independent of direction and the daughters are distinct. For identical daughters an additional symmetry factor is needed.
Two-body top-quark decay width 2026-10-20
Here , the bottom quark mass is neglected, and the W boson is on shell. The weak charged current gives the spin-averaged squared scattering amplitude . The two-body Lorentz-invariant phase space has ; multiplying by gives the displayed decay width. Its longitudinal-vector contribution explains the large- cubic growth, and its threshold factor makes the width vanish as . The formula requires and receives finite-mass and radiative corrections.
Two-dimensional partial-wave scattering formula Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-25
For a real central potential and the outgoing convention , the Partial-wave S-matrix is . The cosine form of the Jacobi-Anger expansion fixes and for . Comparing the outgoing part of each phase-shifted radial cosine with the incident plane wave gives the displayed scattering amplitude. Integrating gives the displayed scattering cross-section, since the constant angular mode has squared norm and each positive-order cosine has squared norm . Reversing the multiplicities would already fail to reproduce the free plane wave at zero scattering phase shift.
The interaction gives the displayed on-shell scattering amplitude, up to an overall phase, for a scalar field decaying to two photons. Substituting either photon four-momentum for its polarization vector makes the expression vanish, verifying its Ward identity. In the parent rest frame, summing the two physical transverse photon polarizations gives . Including the identical-particle factor in a final-state phase-space integral gives .
Virtual state 2026-10-25
A pole reached on an unphysical sheet of the scattering amplitude, often on the negative imaginary momentum axis for a short-range one-dimensional potential. Unlike a positive-imaginary-momentum bound-state pole, it does not give a normalizable exponentially decaying state on both sides.
For a weak constant spherical potential of radius , the scattering amplitude is proportional to , where . Its forward limit is nonzero. Positive zeros satisfy , with first root , so an elastic incident wavenumber needs to access a zero. The asymptotic roots are ; increasing alone does not remove the low-order root correction.