2022European Journal of Applied PhysicsOpen access

Relativistic Compton Wavelength

Espen Gaarder Haug

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Abstract

In 1923, Arthur Holly Compton introduced what today is known as the Compton wavelength. Even if the Compton scattering derivation by Compton is relativistic in the sense that it takes into account the momentum of photons traveling at the speed of light, the original Compton derivation indirectly assumes that the electron is stationary at the moment it is scattered by electrons, but not after it has been hit by photons. Here, we extend this to derive Compton scattering for the case when the electron is initially moving at a velocity v.

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What this paper is about

In 1923, Arthur Holly Compton introduced what today is known as the Compton wavelength. Even if the Compton scattering derivation by Compton is relativistic in the sense that it takes into account the momentum of photons traveling at the speed of light, the original Compton derivation indirectly assumes that the electron is stationary at the moment it is scattered by electrons, but not after it has been hit by photons. Here, we extend this to derive Compton scattering for the case when the electron is initially moving at a velocity v.

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Available abstract

In 1923, Arthur Holly Compton introduced what today is known as the Compton wavelength. Even if the Compton scattering derivation by Compton is relativistic in the sense that it takes into account the momentum of photons traveling at the speed of light, the original Compton derivation indirectly assumes that the electron is stationary at the moment it is scattered by electrons, but not after it has been hit by photons. Here, we extend this to derive Compton scattering for the case when the electron is initially moving at a velocity v.

Key concepts: Compton wavelength, Compton scattering, Physics, Photon, Electron, Momentum (technical analysis), Wavelength, Quantum electrodynamics

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