Physics:Coulomb scattering

Elastic scattering of a pointlike particle with spin s on a massive point charge. Using Born's approximation, one obtains the following expression (``Rutherford formula''):

with q = ze the charge, p the momentum, and the velocity of the projectile, and Q = Ze the charge of the nucleus. introduces an additional dependence coming from the spin s of the scattered particle.

Most frequently, Coulomb scattering is encountered as multiple Coulomb scattering and has to be integrated over many small-angle scatterings ( Multiple Scattering).