The physics of electronic and atomic collisions

FEB 01, 1962

The following account of the Second International Conference on the Physics of Electronic and Atomic Collisions was prepared by Sidney Borowitz, chairman of the Department of Physics at the University Heights campus of New York University, and Stephen J. Smith, chief of the Atomic Physics Section of the National Bureau of Standards.

DOI: 10.1063/1.3058012

Sidney Borowitz

Stephen J. Smith

Almost as soon as quantum theory was developed to explain atomic structure, it was applied to problems of the scattering of electrons by atomic systems. Early efforts were devoted largely to determining whether or not the new picture of the atom was consistent with some of the results obtained in scattering experiments. For example, Faxen and Holtzmark developed their method of describing scattering in terms of phase shifts to explain the Ramsauer effect. The crudest approximations indicated that, in a general way, the wave‐mechanical picture was a satisfactory one for describing continuous, as well as discrete, spectral phenomena, and there the matter rested.

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More about the authors

Sidney Borowitz, University Heights Campus, New York University.

Stephen J. Smith, National Bureau of Standards.