On the Fermi approximation in slow neutron scattering

In this paper a general connection between the scattering from a bound and a free nucleus is derived in terms of formal scattering theory. The basic idea is to eliminate the interaction Hamiltonian between neutron and nucleus. Then the T-operator for a bound nucleus can be expressed by that of the free nucleus and its binding potential. From this equation an expansion is given as a power series in the binding potential for the nucleus. For slow neutron scattering the first term of the series leads to Fermi's approximation. The second term is the first correction to Fermi's approximation which contains no divergences for point scatterers contrarily to theories of other authors. In particular the correction to Fermi's approximation of the scattering amplitude is calculated for an elastically bound proton in the limit of zero-energy neutron. (orig.)