Diffraction Effects in Semiclassical Scattering

This book deals with the theory of critical effects in semiclassical scattering, in which the standard approximations break down. Such critical effects are responsible for phenomena such as rainbows and glories.

H. M. Nussenzveig (Author)

9780521383189, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 23 July 1992

256 pages, 85 b/w illus.
23.6 x 15.8 x 1.8 cm, 0.544 kg

'Nicely written and well organized, the book may be useful to research workers in these areas … The material is also accessible to graduate students … I hope that the relatively low price will help to distribute this work into many physical libraries.' Optik

Critical effects in semiclassical scattering, in which the standard approximations break down, are associated with forward peaking, rainbows, glories, orbiting and resonances. Besides giving rise to beautiful optical effects in the atmosphere, critical effects have important applications in many areas of physics. However, their interpretation and accurate treatment is difficult. This book, based on the Elliott Montroll Lectures, given at the University of Rochester, deals with the theory of these critical effects. After a preliminary chapter in which the problem of critical effects is posed, the next three chapters on coronae, rainbows and glories are written so as to be accessible to a broader audience. The main part of the book then describes the results obtained from the application of complex angular momentum techniques to scattering by homogeneous spheres. These techniques lead to practically usable asymptotic approximations, and to new physical insights into critical effects. A new conceptual picture of diffraction, regarded as a tunnelling effect, emerges. The final two chapters contain brief descriptions of applications to a broad range of fields, including linear and nonlinear optics, radiative transfer, astronomy, acoustics, seismology, atomic, nuclear and particle physics.

1. Critical effects in semiclassical scattering
2. Diffraction and coronae
3. The rainbow
4. The glory
5. Mie solution and resonances
6. Complex angular momentum
7. Scattering by an impenetrable sphere
8. Diffraction as tunnelling
9. The Debye expansion
10. Theory of the rainbow
11. Theory of the glory
12. Near-critical scattering
13. Average cross sections
14. Orbiting and resonances
15. Macroscopic applications
16. Applications to atomic, nuclear and particle physics
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Atmospheric physics [PHVJ], Optical physics [PHJ]