Samiksha Jaiswal (Editor)

Extinction paradox

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In the small wavelength limit, the total scattering cross-section of an impenetrable sphere is twice its geometrical cross-sectional area (which is the value obtained in classical mechanics).

Several explanations for this phenomenon have been proposed:

  • destructive interference inside particle shadow
  • diffraction and shadowing of light by particle
  • incident wave must be cancelled inside particle
  • Superposition of incident and scattered field
  • References

    Extinction paradox Wikipedia


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