The scattering of a particle in a perturbed Coulomb field is studied by means of the Runge–Lenz vector. We show that this leads to a simple method for calculating the classical deflection function, valid for quite general perturbing forces. With the same techniques we obtain the relativistic correction of order c−2 to Rutherford’s scattering formula.
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© 1996 American Association of Physics Teachers.
1996
American Association of Physics Teachers
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