Graduate Student Seminar Series

A novel iterative method of finding the scattering wave function and phase shift for “the elastic scattering of electrons by a hydrogen atom”.

A new numerical method of solving the integral-differential equation that results from the elastic scattering of electrons by a hydrogen atom is devised. In this method, the kernel is decomposed into separable terms by a method of singular value decomposition. A set of integral-differential equations, involving the residual integral kernel, is obtained. This set of equations is, then, solved for the wave function and from the wave function, the phase shift is evaluated. The phase shift can then be used to determine many things about the scattering i.e. the scattering differential cross section, the number of scattered particles detected per unit area per unit time for a given solid angle, etc…