Transmission bows of radially inhomogeneous spheres.

We consider transmission scattering of a plane wave by a radially inhomogeneous sphere containing a localized region of refractive index decrease. In ray theory, the boundary conditions on the deflection angle at axial and grazing incidence determine that transmission scattering gives rise to an even number of bows, half of them being relative maximum bows and half being relative minimum bows. For a model refractive index profile, we determine the conditions under which different numbers of bows occur, and we suggest physical mechanisms responsible for producing them. We also verify that these bows occur in wave scattering in the short wavelength limit, both in the frequency domain and time domain.