Consider a particle of mass $m$ and momentum $\hbar k$ moving under the influence of a spherically symmetric potential $V(r)$ such that $V(r)=0$ for $r \geqslant a$. Define the scattering amplitude $f(\theta)$ and the phase shift $\delta_{\ell}(k)$. Here $\theta$ is the scattering angle. How is $f(\theta)$ related to the differential cross section?

Obtain the partial-wave expansion

$$f(\theta)=\frac{1}{k} \sum_{\ell=0}^{\infty}(2 \ell+1) e^{i \delta_{\ell}} \sin \delta_{\ell} P_{\ell}(\cos \theta) .$$

Let $R_{\ell}(r)$ be a solution of the radial Schrödinger equation, regular at $r=0$, for energy $\hbar^{2} k^{2} / 2 m$ and angular momentum $\ell$. Let

$$Q_{\ell}(k)=a \frac{R_{\ell}^{\prime}(a)}{R_{\ell}(a)}-k a \frac{j_{\ell}^{\prime}(k a)}{j_{\ell}(k a)}$$

Obtain the relation

$$\tan \delta_{\ell}=\frac{Q_{\ell}(k) j_{\ell}^{2}(k a) k a}{Q_{\ell}(k) n_{\ell}(k a) j_{\ell}(k a) k a-1} .$$

Suppose that

$$\tan \delta_{\ell} \approx \frac{\gamma}{k_{0}-k},$$

for some $\ell$, with all other $\delta_{\ell}$ small for $k \approx k_{0}$. What does this imply for the differential cross section when $k \approx k_{0}$ ?

[For $V=0$, the two independent solutions of the radial Schrödinger equation are $j_{\ell}(k r)$ and $n_{\ell}(k r)$ with

$$\begin{aligned} j_{\ell}(\rho) & \sim \frac{1}{\rho} \sin \left(\rho-\frac{1}{2} \ell \pi\right), \quad n_{\ell}(\rho) \sim-\frac{1}{\rho} \cos \left(\rho-\frac{1}{2} \ell \pi\right) \quad \text { as } \quad \rho \rightarrow \infty \\ e^{i \rho \cos \theta} &=\sum_{\ell=0}^{\infty}(2 \ell+1) i^{\ell} j_{\ell}(\rho) P_{\ell}(\cos \theta) \end{aligned}$$

Note that the Wronskian $\rho^{2}\left(j_{\ell}(\rho) n_{\ell}^{\prime}(\rho)-j_{\ell}^{\prime}(\rho) n_{\ell}(\rho)\right)$ is independent of $\left.\rho .\right]$