Nonasymptotic analysis of relativistic electron scattering in the Coulomb field

Abstract

It is shown that the conventional Born series for relativistic electron scattering in the Coulomb field cannot be used for calculating the scattering characteristics. The differential cross section at small scattering angles is found on the basis of the Furry-Sommerfeld-Maue solution of the Dirac equation. Propagation of the electron wave packet is considered in order to separate the incident and scattered fluxes. It is shown that the total scattering cross section proves to be finite but depends on the distance r between the scattering center and the observation point. It is also shown that the polarization characteristics of the scattered beam are changed due to the long-range character of the Coulomb potential. The results can be important because Coulomb scattering is often used for normalization of experimental data in high-energy physics.