A new technique for calculating virtual photon spectra

A first-order matrix differential equation in energy is used to propagate radial matrix elements arising in DWBA of relativistic electron scattering from nuclei. Given an initial set of matrix elements at some value of the energy, this equation permits the evaluation of the radial matrix elements over the complete energy transfer range. A computer code has been written for this new procedure and the virtual photon spectra accompanying electron scattering from a point nucleus is calculated as a function of photon energy for various multipoles, nuclear charges, and incident electron energies.