Thermal Raman line ratio 2026-10-18
Assume one harmonic normal mode at thermal equilibrium, weak spontaneous excitation far from electronic resonances, the same collection solid angle and wave polarization, and matched response after instrumental correction. The Boltzmann distribution givesHere is the Boltzmann constant, is temperature, and is the probability of vibrational quantum number . Thus . Linear coupling to has squared oscillator matrix elements proportional to for Stokes Raman scattering and for Anti-Stokes Raman scattering. Summing over initial levels gives strengths proportional to and respectively; their ratio is , even when levels above are occupied.
Let and denote line-integrated radiant intensities, meaning power per collection solid angle. The off-resonant electric dipole radiation law adds the fourth power of emitted frequency:The photon rate divides each line's power by its own . Consequently, the ideal response-corrected anti-Stokes/Stokes count-rate ratio has the third power of the same frequency ratio. Peak heights alone do not give line-integrated radiant intensities if linewidths differ. Uncorrected detector counts can also include unequal detector response and unequal optical filter transmission. Resonant enhancement, overlapping spectral lines, nonthermal populations and local optical heating can invalidate a temperature inferred from this simple formula.
Thin-foil scattering counts 2026-10-18
Let be the number of projectiles actually incident on the foil during an exposure, its foil areal number density, and the probability of detecting an accepted particle. For a sufficiently small detector patch of area at distance from the scattering point, with its normal at angle to the line of sight,The product is a dimensionless scattering probability in this approximation; is an expected value of counts, so it need not be an integer. The approximation requires a nearly constant differential scattering cross-section and efficiency across the patch and incident beam. For finite acceptance use , including the incident beam's spread if appreciable. A screen facing the foil has .
For an original numerical model, stipulate monoenergetic alpha particles with , , and a gold target with . Use the rounded model constant , where electronvolts and . Thus and . Choose , , , and . For example, facing the foil at gives this small-patch solid angle.
At , and , using barn . The expected signal is counts. At it is four times larger, about counts. Doubling foil areal number density or detector solid angle doubles these expected signals as long as the approximations continue to hold.
Calculated Rutherford angular cross-section and finite-detector counts
. Original calculation for the stated ideal monoenergetic alpha beam and thin gold foil. The curve is a differential cross-section; the bars are expected counts for the specified small detector solid angle at separate settings. They are not measured 1909 or 1913 data, and do not sum to a total scattering probability. The curve is shown only from 20 to 160 degrees. Details.An observation also contains backgrounds. For a stable source and matched geometry, an estimator is , where denotes exposure duration. If source activity changes, normalize by incident exposure as well. Background subtraction removes an estimated background; it does not make finite counting fluctuations disappear.
Consider one chosen model at a fixed total energy, with two open scattering channels, no absorption and no omitted outgoing modes. Channel 1 leaves the target unchanged; channel 2 excites it. Let and . For the same projectile mass, conservation of energy then requires a target excitation . These are hypothetical parameters, not a fit to a particular atom. Each incoming or outgoing mode is normalized to unit probability current; the outgoing modes will have the angular profiles specified below.
Choose the S-matrixThis phenomenological unitary matrix specifies the channel conversion; it is not derived here from an interaction potential energy. For incidence in channel 1, its first column gives the outgoing flux amplitudesTo recover ordinary wave coefficients relative to an incident coefficient one, undo the velocity normalization:Thus is allowed: channel 2 travels more slowly. Its outgoing probability current fraction is , not . Renormalizing the unweighted squares would give and , the wrong probabilities. More generally the ordinary coefficient map is , with ; it obeys . The conserved quantity is the squared coefficient norm weighted by velocity, which represents probability current.
Now specify an original angular realization of these two outgoing modes, with scattering angle and no azimuth dependence:The first normalization follows from , where . These angular profiles define the modes of this model; they are not asserted to follow from Born's approximation or an atomic potential energy. The joint directional probability densities are
Complex angular amplitudes become channel-resolved scattering intensity
. Original two-channel model. Left: arrows in the complex plane show , the angular factor of . Right: the joint directional probability densities , per solid angle, retain the channel flux weights and . The shaded interval is the cone ; its probability requires the measure , not the area under a curve against degrees. These are chosen amplitudes, not historical measurements. Source. Details.Suppose a detector accepts the cone , with full azimuth and unit efficiency. Its angular fractions within the channels areMultiplying the angular fractions by the outgoing flux weights givesFor independent incident events, the expected values are therefore and accepted detections, compared with and over all directions. The remaining expected events fall outside the cone. The chosen incident number makes the expectations integers; actual counts fluctuate. Conditional on a detection inside the cone, the channel probabilities are and , rather than and . Angular acceptance changes the observed channel proportions even with equal detector efficiencies.
The final atomic states are orthogonal, so ignoring the atomic readout adds the two channel intensities; it does not produce . Coherent paths that reach the same final state can instead interfere, as the existing probability amplitude and quantum superposition examples demonstrate. The distinction is physical distinguishability of final states, not whether the detector operator chooses to display their labels. Flux normalization and angular integration make the scattering interpretation useful: they turn complex outgoing waves into conserved event weights and then into the statistics of a specified detector.
Vacuum conservation of specific intensity Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-14
In a transparent, stationary vacuum with Euclidean geometry and observers at rest in the same frame, the radiative transfer equation has zero absorption and emission, so along a light ray. The same specific intensity reaches the observer without geometric dilution. More generally, is a Lorentz invariant; collisionless propagation preserves this ratio along a ray even with gravitational or cosmological redshift, rather than preserving at shifted frequencies. [ref]
https://www.roe.ac.uk/japwww/teaching/ram5/ram5_2018.pdf#page=27. John Peacock, Radiation and Matter, 2018–2019, §4.1, Conservation of intensity and equation (140)
.The elementary geometry is instructive. Two facing surface elements separated by distance exchange spectral radiant fluxThe receiver subtends at the source. Describing that same traveling beam at the receiver instead uses . Both descriptions have identical geometric factors, so conservation of its radiant flux gives equal specific intensities at the two ends. This compares the same propagation direction at both ends, not emission in the opposite direction.
A uniform source remains equally bright per resolved direction under these assumptions, but occupies a smaller apparent solid angle farther away. For a small source of projected area at distance and a small receiver facing it, irradiance is approximately . The radiant flux intercepted by receiver area is approximately . With , and , distances and give and , and received radiant fluxes of and . The inverse-square law concerns collected radiation from the whole source; remains at either distance.


