Rotationally invariant approximation to charge-monopole scattering

Abstract

A semiclassical approximation derived directly from the Feynman path integral is employed in the study of electric-charge-magnetic-monopole scattering. We show that this approximation, unlike perturbation theory, is consistent with rotational invariance. The semiclassical cross section is explicitly evaluated. It differs from the classical differential cross section for sufficiently large scattering angles due to the interference between the several classical trajectories contributing to the scattering at such angles. It is found that when the scattering angle is not too near the backward direction the semiclassical cross section approaches the classical limit rather slowly as the Dirac quantization number becomes large, or equally as ℏ→0 with the product of electric and magnetic charges held fixed.