Glory scattering by black holes

We present a physically motivated derivation of the JWKB backward glory-scattering cross section of massless waves by Schwarzschild black holes. The angular dependence of the cross section is identical with the one derived by path integration, namely, dsigma/d..cap omega.. = 4..pi../sup 2/lambda/sup -1/B/sub g/ /sup 2/(dB mW..pi.., where lambda is the wavelength, B(theta) is the inverse of the classical deflection function CTHETA(B), B/sub g/ is the glory impact parameter, s is the helicity of the scattered wave, and J/sub 2s/ is the Bessel function of order 2s. The glory rings formed by scalar waves are bright at the center; those formed by polarized waves are dark at the center. For scattering of massless particles by a spherical black hole of mass M, B(theta)/Mapprox.3 ..sqrt..3 + 3.48 exp(-theta), theta > owig..pi... The numerical values of dsigma/d..cap omega.. for this deflection function are found to agree with earlier computer calculations of glory cross sections from black holes.