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More generally, the term cross-section is used in physics to quantify the probability of a certain particle-particle interaction, e.g., scattering, electromagnetic absorption, etc. (Note that light in this context is described as consisting of particles, i.e., photons.) A typical absorption cross-section has units of cm 2 ⋅molecule −1.
In physics, the cross section is a measure of the probability that a specific process will take place in a collision of two particles. For example, the Rutherford cross-section is a measure of probability that an alpha particle will be deflected by a given angle during an interaction with an atomic nucleus.
The formula describes both the Thomson scattering of low energy photons (e.g. visible light) and the Compton scattering of high energy photons (e.g. x-rays and gamma-rays), showing that the total cross section and expected deflection angle decrease with increasing photon energy.
absorption cross section and scattering cross section are both quantitatively related to the attenuation coefficient; see absorption cross section and scattering cross section for details; The attenuation coefficient is also sometimes called opacity ; see opacity (optics) .
X-rays or gamma rays, where it is denoted μ and measured in cm −1; neutrons and nuclear reactors, where it is called macroscopic cross section (although actually it is not a section dimensionally speaking), denoted Σ and measured in m −1; ultrasound attenuation, where it is denoted α and measured in dB⋅cm −1 ⋅MHz −1; [4] [5]
To describe the attenuation coefficient in a way independent of the number densities n i of the N attenuating species of the material sample, one introduces the attenuation cross section = (). σ i has the dimension of an area; it expresses the likelihood of interaction between the particles of the beam and the particles of the species i in the ...
A gamma ray cross section is a measure of the probability that a gamma ray interacts with matter. The total cross section of gamma ray interactions is composed of several independent processes: photoelectric effect, Compton (incoherent) scattering, electron-positron pair production in the nucleus field and electron-positron pair production in the electron field (triplet production).
The SI unit of molar absorption coefficient is the square metre per mole (m 2 /mol), but in practice, quantities are usually expressed in terms of M −1 ⋅cm −1 or L⋅mol −1 ⋅cm −1 (the latter two units are both equal to 0.1 m 2 /mol).