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9 - Compton scattering

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Hale Bradt
Affiliation:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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Summary

What we learn in this chapter

The normal Compton effect involves the collision of a photon with a nearly stationary electron. In the inverse process, a high-energy electron gives energy to a photon. This process, known as inverse Compton (IC) scattering, is important in the jets of active galactic nuclei and in clusters of galaxies.

Momentum and energy conservation yield the energy and scattered angle of the electron in the normal effect. The increase of the photon energy in the IC process follows from the application of the normal effect in the rest frame of the energetic incident electron. The final result is that a relativistic electron with Lorentz factor γ = U/mc2 will increase the photon energy by a factor of ∼γ2. In jets, for example, this can propel x-ray photons up to extreme gamma-ray energies detected by TeV gamma-ray astronomers. The modification of photon spectra due to single or multiple IC scatters is called Comptonization.

Energetic electrons in a nebula containing magnetic fields will radiate by the synchrotron process. The synchrotron photons may then interact with the energetic electrons that created them via the IC process and thus be boosted to extremely high energies. This is known as the synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) process. […]

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Chapter
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Astrophysics Processes
The Physics of Astronomical Phenomena
, pp. 329 - 354
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

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  • Compton scattering
  • Hale Bradt, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Book: Astrophysics Processes
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511802249.010
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  • Compton scattering
  • Hale Bradt, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Book: Astrophysics Processes
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511802249.010
Available formats
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Compton scattering
  • Hale Bradt, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Book: Astrophysics Processes
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511802249.010
Available formats
×