Quantum Physics III (8.

06) Spring 2008

Solution Set 10
May 10, 2008
1. Scattering from a Reectionless Potential (10 points)
(a) (2 points) Plugging
0
(x) = Asech(ax) into the Schrodinger equation, one nds that it is
an eigenstate with energy E
0
=
h
2
a
2
2m
. Since E < 0 and the potential goes zero as x ,
this is a bound state.
(b) (3 points) We now consider the wave function
(x) = (k/a +i tanh(ax))e
ikx
(1)
Since

x
2
= k
2
2aksech
2
(ax)e
ikx
2ia
2
e
ikx
tanh(ax)sech
2
(ax) = (k
2
+ 2a
2
sech
2
(ax)),
we nd
H =
h
2
2m
_
k
2
2a
2
sech
2
(ax)

h
2
a
2
m
sech
2
(ax)
=
h
2
k
2
2m
.
This is true for any (real) k, so we have a continuum of scattering states
k
.
(c) (3 points) In order to study scattering, we ask what happens to a plane wave sent in
from x = . When the particle interacts with the potential, some of the wave will be
transmitted and some reected, so that asymptotically the solution should reduce to (x
) = e
ikx
+Re
ikx
on the left and (x ) = Te
ikx
on the right.
Now, look at solution (1). Since lim
x
tanh(ax) = 1, we nd
(x ) =
k +ia
a
e
ikx
(2)
As x we nd that
(x ) =
k ia
a
e
ikx
(3)
Since there is no term proportional to e
ikx
in (3), R must be zero. As a consistency check,
we now show |T| = 1. To nd T we take the ratio of the coecients before e
ikx
in (2) and (3)
(since (3) is not normalized in the standard form)
T =
k +ia
k ia
.
From this expression we see that |T| = 1 which we must have by ux conservation, as there
is no reected wave.
(d) (2 points) As we can see from part (c), T(k) has a pole at k = ia. In terms of energy,
the location of the pole is at the bound state energy, E
0
=
h
2
a
2
2m
.
1
2. Simple Properties of Cross Sections (15 points)
(a) (2 points) The incident ux is

S
i
=
hk
m
z,
while the scattered ux is (to leading order in 1/r)

S
s
=
hk
m
|f|
2
r
2
r.
(b) (2 points) Using part (a),
d
d
d = lim
r
S
s
r
|S
i
|
dA =
|f|
2
r
2
r
2
d,
and therefore
d
d
= |f|
2
.
(c) (11 points) From conservation of probability, we must have
_
S
total
= 0, and therefore
_
S
total
dA = 0, with the integral is taken over the boundary of space. Now, S
total
=
S
i
+S
s
+S
int
, where
S
int
=
h
2mi
_
e
ikz

f
r
e
ikr
+e
ikr
f

r
e
ikz
c.c.
_
=
hk
m
1
r
Re
_
fe
ik(rz)
_
( z + r).
Lets consider
_
S
total
dA = 0 term by term. The rst term we consider is
_
S
int
dA. The
easiest coordinate system to use is cylindrical coordinates, in which we take the boundary of
space to be two planes at z = . (You can check that the contribution to the integral from
is sub leading.) We have, then,
_
S
int
dA =
hk
m
_
dd
1
r
Re
_
fe
ik(rz)
_
( z + r) z

hk
m
_
dd
1
z
Re
_
f( = 0)e
ik
2
/2z
_
( z z) z,
where in the second line I have used the approximations
r z,
r = |z| +

2
2|z|
+. . . ,
0.
Because at z = , z = r, there is no contribution from the plane at z = . The plane
at z = contributes
_
S
int
dA =
4hk
mz
_
d Re
_
f( = 0)e
ik
2
/2z
_
=
4hk
m
_
da Re
_
f( = 0)e
ika

=
4hk
m
lim
0
_
da e
a
[Ref( = 0) cos(ka) Imf( = 0) sin(ka)]
=
4h
m
Imf( = 0).
2
The other two terms are simpler, as
_
S
i
= 0 and
_
S
s
dA =
hk
m
_
d|f|
2
.
Conservation of ux then tells us
_
|f|
2
d =
4
k
Imf(0).
3. Born Approximations for Scattering from Yukawa and Coulomb Potentials (15
points)
(a) (6 points) The Yukawa potential is spherically symmetric, so f() =
2m
h
2

0
dr rV (r) sinr,
where = |

k

k

|. The integral we need to perform is

_
dr e
r
sinr =
1
2i
_
e
(+i)r
+i

e
(i)r
i
_
=

2
+
2
.
Using this,
f() =
2m
h
2
(
2
+
2
)
.
From this we nd
d
d
=
_
2m
h
2
(
2
+
2
)
_
2
.
The total cross-section is
=
_
|f|
2
d =
_
2m
h
2
_
2
_
sindd
1
(
2
+ 4k
2
sin
2
2
)
2
.
To evaluate the integral, make the variable change a = 4k
2
sin
2
(/2)/
2
. Then the integral
becomes
1
2
2
k
2
_
4k
2
/
2
0
da
(1+a)
2
=
2

2
(
2
+4k
2
)
, and
=
4

2
+ 4k
2
_
2m
h
2

_
2
=
4
h
2

2
+ 8mE
_
2m
h
_
2
.
(b) (2 points) Putting = Q
1
Q
2
and = 0, we nd
d
d
=
_
2mQ
1
Q
2
2h
2
k
2
(1 cos )
_
2
=
_
Q
1
Q
2
4E
_
2
1
sin
4
/2
,
which is precisely the Rutherford cross-section.
(c) (2 points) To prevent confusion, I will use the symbol T for thickness. Since the number of
particles scattered per unit solid angle per unit time per scatterer is
d
d
d
2
N
dtdA
, and the number
density of scatterers is n, the number of particles scattered into unit solid angle per unit time
is
_
dATn
d
d
d
2
N
dtdA
=
d
d
dN
dt
nT. This is independent of beam area and beam uniformity, as
desired. The key point here is that the factors of area cancel independently for each area
element, so non uniformity of the beam is not an issue.
3
(d) (3 points) With the numbers
Q
1
= 2e Q
2
= 79e =

2
T = 10
6
m d = 10
4
rads
2
E = 8 MeV
n =
Au
/m
Au
= 5.9 10
28
atoms/m
3
dN/dt = 3.13 10
27
s
1
,
we nd that the number of scattered alpha particles seen in the detector per second is 3.7.
Note that in order to obtain the right units in SI we need to include a factor of 1/4
0
in .
(e) (2 points) The number of particles detected in the detector depends on as
1
sin
4
2
sin (4)
where the second factor sin comes from the solid angle. The quantity in (4) takes on the
following values:
3009 = 10
o
33 = 45
o
0.97 = 135
o
0.18 = 170
o
.
When we took = 90
o
and therefore
sin
sin
4
/2
= 4, we found that there were 3.7 particles per
second scattered into the detector. Using this, the number of particles observed per second in
the detector at the various angular locations are
2784 = 10
o
30.5 = 45
o
0.9 = 135
o
0.16 = 170
o
.
Note that the observed number of particles shoots up very sharply near = 0.
4. The Size of Nuclei (10 points)
(a) (4 points) Using the charge distribution (r) =
3Z
4R
3
for r R and 0 otherwise, we nd
_
r
2
dr sind de
iqr cos
(r) =
3Z
R
3
q
2
_
1
q
sinqR Rcos qR
_
,
and therefore
f =
6mZe
2
h
2
q
2
(qR)
3
(sinqR qRcos qR).
The scattering cross-section is
d
d
= |f|
2
=
_
6mZe
2
h
2
q
2
(qR)
3
_
2
(sinqR qRcos qR)
2
.
4
2.5 5 7.5 10 12.5 15
qR
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
F
Figure 1: The form factor F(qR).
(b) (3 points) For a point particle, (x) = Z
3
(r), so the scattering amplitude is f
0
=
2me
2
Z/(h
2
q
2
). We dene the form factor
F(qR) =
f
f
0
=
3
(qR)
3
(sinqR qRcos qR).
We plot this function in gure 1.
(c) (3 points) As goes from 0 to , q goes from 0 to 2E/(hc). In the relativistic regime,
qR =
2ER
hc
sin/2, so if E/( hc) 1/R, then qR 1. In this regime,
F(qR) =
3
(qR)
3
_
qR
(qR)
3
6
+. . .
_
qR
(qR)
3
2
+. . .
__
1.
Since the form factor is unity, this means that in this regime there is no dierence between the
scattering from a point particle and an object of size R hc/E.
If R = (2 7) 10
15
m, then we need E hc/(2 7) 10
15
m = 30 100 MeV in order
to resolve the nite size of the nucleus.
5
5. The Born Approximation in One Dimension (15 points)
(a) (6 points) We need to show that (x) =
0
(x)
im
h
2
k
_

e
ik|xx
0
|
V (x
0
)(x
0
)dx
0
satises
the Schrodinger equation with eigenvalue
h
2
k
2
2m
. Now,

2
x
2
e
ik|xy|
=
_
2ik(x y) k
2

e
ik|xy|
,
so

h
2
2m

2
x
2
=
h
2
k
2
2m
_

im
h
2
k
2
_
dy e
ik|xy|
V (y)(y)
_
(x)V (x).
It is therefore easy to see that
_

h
2
2m

2
x
2
+V (x)
_
(x) =
h
2
k
2
2m
(x).
(b) (5 points) Using
0
(x) Ae
ikx
, the rst Born approximation becomes
(x) Ae
ikx

Aim
h
2
k
_
dy e
ik|xy|
V (y)e
iky
.
We want to nd the reection coecient, which as Griths denes it is R = |reected wave|
2
/|incident wave|
2
(since this problem comes from Griths, we will use his denitions for R and T in this prob-
lem). The reected wave is the component of that behaves like e
ikx
at x . Now, as
x , |xy| = y x, and thus the coecient of the reected wave is
Aim
h
2
k
_
dy e
2iky
V (y).
The incident wave is the component of that behaves like e
ikx
at x , and the coecient
of this piece of is A. Therefore,
R =

m
h
2
k
_
dy e
2iky
V (y)

2
. (5)
(c) (4 points) First, we set V (x) = (x). In this case, the integral in equation (5) becomes

_
dy e
2iky
(y) = . The reection coecient is therefore R =
m
2

2
h
4
k
2
=
m
2
2 h
2
E
. From this,
we nd the rst Born approximation to the transmission coecient,
T = 1 R = 1
m
2
2h
2
E
.
The exact answers are, dening w =
m
2
2 h
2
E
,
R
exact
=
w
w + 1
, T
exact
=
1
1 +w
,
so the rst Born approximation has found the rst term in an expansion of R
exact
, T
exact
in
small w. Small w means that the strength of the potential (measured by ) is small compared
to the energy of the particle, and so this means that the Born approximation is good in the
weak scattering regime.
Second, we set V (x) = V
0
when |x| < a and 0 otherwise. In this case, the integral of (5) is
V
0
_
a
a
dy e
2iky
=
V
0
sin(2ka)
k
. The reection coecient is then R =
_
m
h
2
k
2
V
0
sin(2ka)
_
2
, and
the transmission coecient is
T = 1 R = 1
_
V
0
2E
sin(2ka)
_
2
.
6
The exact answer is
T
exact
=
_
1 +
V
2
0
4E(E +V
0
)
sin
2
(2ka)
_
1
1
_
V
0
2E
sin(2ka)
_
2
where the approximation holds when V
0
/E 1, that is, in the weak scattering regime. Again,
we have found the rst term in the weak scattering expansion of the exact answer.
6. Scattering from a Small Crystal (8 points)
(a) (4 points) In the rst Born approximation, the scattering amplitude is given by the
formula f(, ) =
m
2 h
2

i
_
d
3
r e
iqr
v(r X
i
). In order to proceed further, we Fourier
expand the scattering potential of the single atom, v(x) =
_
(2)
3
d
3
k e
ikx
v
k
. Plugging this
in, we nd
f(, ) =
m
2h
2

i
_
(2)
3
d
3
k v
k
e
ikX
i
_
d
3
r e
i(qk)r
.
The integral over r yields a delta function,
_
d
3
r e
i(qk)r
= (2)
3

3
(q k), which makes the
integration over k trivial, so that
f(, ) =
m
2h
2
v
q
_

i
e
iqX
i
_
.
The dierential cross-section is given by
d
d
=
_
m
2h
2
_
2
|v
q
|
2

i
e
iqX
i

2
.
Note that the last factor contains all the information about the crystal structure, in the form
of the sum over atom positions X
i
, while the factor |v
q
|
2
contains all the information about the
individual atom potential.
(b) (4 points) Consider scattering from two atoms, separated by a distance

d. Let the
incoming momentum be

k, while the outgoing momentum is

k

. Constructive interference will

occur when d (kk

) = d q = 2n, for some integer n. Taking the entire crystal into account,
constructive interference will occur when X
i
q = 2n, for all X
i
. (This is simply a fancy way
of dening a Bragg plane.) Now, if the scattered wave satises the condition X
i
q = 2n,
then e
iqX
i
= 1, so that
d
d
N
2
, where N is the number of atoms in the crystal; otherwise,
generically, the interference between scattered wave will lead to
d
d
0. Thus, scattering
amplitudes are only large when the Bragg condition is satised.
7