Non-eikonal corrections in potential scattering on two centres

Scattering of a spinless projectile from a system of two (over-lapping or non-overlapping) local potentials is studied in the first-order eikonal expansion. Corrections to the Glauber formula are found to come mainly from the non-eikonal propagation in the “direct” double scattering, and not from multiple scattering (“reflections”).A comparison is made between the exact (to the leading order) and two approximate results: (i) based on the theory of scattering from non-overlapping potentials, and (ii) neglecting the reflection terms and adopting the local “Born-like” off-shell extrapolation of the two-body amplitudes. The second approximation is found to be more accurate and technically simpler in calculation of multiple scattering from many-body systems.