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ehrenfest
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Homework Statement
Particles of scattered off the surface of an ellipsoid given by x^+y^2+z^2/f^2 = R^2, where f and R are constants. Find the differential cross-section.
Homework Equations
The Attempt at a Solution
Let s be the impact parameter. I can find s as a function of the scattering angle, theta, but I am not sure where to go from there. I get:
[tex]s(\theta) = \frac{R}{\sqrt{f^2 tan^2(\theta/2)+1}} [/tex]
When I did this for a sphere instead of an ellipse, that expression for s was much simpler and could be easily differentiated. Then I just used the formula:
[tex] \frac{d\sigma}{d\theta}=\frac{ s(\theta)}{\sin \theta} \left|{\frac{ds(\theta)}{d\theta}\right| [/tex]
But, I have no idea how to differentiate this w.r.t theta. Is there another way to get [tex]\frac{d \sigma}{d \Omega}[/tex].
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