Topic summary
Differential cross section
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Cross section (physics).
Differential cross section
Consider a classical measurement where a single particle is scattered off a single stationary target particle. Conventionally, a spherical coordinate system is used, with the target placed at the origin and the z axis of this coordinate system aligned with the incident beam. The angle θ is the scattering angle, measured between the incident beam and the scattered beam, and the φ is the azimuthal angle.