Relativistic corrections to stopping powers.

Abstract

Relativistic corrections to the nonrelativistic Bethe-Bloch formula for the stopping power of matter for charged particles are traditionally computed by considering close collisions separately from distant collisions. The close-collision contribution is further divided into the Mott correction, appropriate for very small impact parameters, and the Bloch correction, computed for larger values. This division of the region of close collisions leads to a very cumbersome result if one generalizes the original Bloch procedure to relativistic energies. We avoid the resulting poorly specified scattering angle ${\ensuremath{\theta}}_{0}$ that divides the Mott and Bloch correction regimes by using the procedure suggested by Lindhard and applied by Golovchenko, Cox, and Goland to determine the Bloch correction for relativistic velocities.