Acoustic scattering and "failure" of the optical theorem

P A Martin

doi:10.1121/10.0034427

Acoustic scattering and "failure" of the optical theorem

J Acoust Soc Am. 2024 Nov 1;156(5):3496-3501. doi: 10.1121/10.0034427.

Author

P A Martin¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado 80401, USA.

PMID: 39565145
DOI: 10.1121/10.0034427

Abstract

For plane wave scattering by an obstacle, the optical theorem relates the scattering cross section to the far-field scattered field in the forward direction. This simple and useful result fails to hold when the incident field is not a plane wave. "Failures" of this kind are explored. For scattering by a sphere, an explicit formula for the scattering cross section is obtained, applicable to arbitrary incident fields.