Born expansions for charged particle scattering

High-order terms in Born expansions of scattering amplitudes in powers of charge are frequently divergent when long-range Coulomb interactions are present asymptotically. Expansions which are free from these logarithmic divergences have been constructed recently. We illustrate these expansions with the simplest example, namely the non-relativistic Rutherford scattering of two charged particles. This approach represents an adequate framework for the calculation of transition amplitudes and a comprehensive starting point for the development of consistent perturbation approximations in multi-channel descriptions of strongly interacting atomic systems. 17 refs.