Relativistic Pulse Scattering

The scattering of electromagnetic signals by an object in uniform translational motion may be computed with the four-step frame-hopping method arising from the special theory of relativity. As the scattered signals are calculated in an inertial reference frame that is attached to the object, many standard analytical and numerical methods can be used for that calculation; furthermore, the constitutive parameters and the object’s shape and size at rest enter that calculation. The scattered signal in the laboratory inertial reference frame depends, in general, on the object’s size, shape, orientation, composition, and velocity, as well as on the incident signal. The forward-scattering theorem holds true for co-moving observers but not for other inertial observers.