Hi Jacob,
well, amplitudes versus intensities does not really capture the essential difference. It is (complex) structure factors versus (real) intensities (or amplitudes - this does not make a substantial difference). The lengths of the former (which are squared to give the intensities) can be seen as the result of a random walk in 2D (acentrics) or 1D (centrics). Mathematically, this gives rise to the form of the distribution as shown in http://strucbio.biologie.uni-konstanz.de/ccp4wiki/index.php/Centric_and_acentric_reflections .
While you try to obtain the paper, also check out http://strucbio.biologie.uni-konstanz.de/ccp4wiki/index.php/Intensity_statistics and http://strucbio.biologie.uni-konstanz.de/ccp4wiki/index.php/Wilson_plot
HTH,
Kay
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