An Analysis of Inelastic Neutron Scattering by Liquid Methane

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The incoherent neutron scattering cross section of molecular liquids is analyzed using a damping function model for correlation functions of molecular translations and rotations. The present approach is different from recent works in that the scattering function is evaluated directly, not through the intermediate scattering function. The damping fuction is determined from a simple relation between its long-wavelength limit and the generalized frequency distribution function, and translation-rotation couplings are assumed to be neglected. A physical model is used for the translational motions of center-of-mass of a molecule, including properly its short-time and long-time behaviors. A simple model for the rotational motions is suggested which relates the damping function to the Fourier transform of the dipole correlation function, or equivalently, the infrared vibrational absorption spectrum. Theoretical absolute scattering intensities are computed for liquid methane and shown to be in satisfactory agreement with both thermal and cold neutron measurements.