Compton scattering refers to the scattering of light off of free electrons. Experimentally, it’s impossible to create a target of completely free electrons. However, if the incident photons have energ...Compton scattering refers to the scattering of light off of free electrons. Experimentally, it’s impossible to create a target of completely free electrons. However, if the incident photons have energy much greater than the typical binding energies of electrons to atoms, the electrons will be “knocked off” of the atoms by the photons and act as free particles. Therefore, Compton scattering typically refers to scattering of high energy photons off of atomic targets.
As a final example of a collision in special relativity, we consider the totally elastic case: a collision in which the total momentum, total kinetic energy, and the mass of all particles are conserve...As a final example of a collision in special relativity, we consider the totally elastic case: a collision in which the total momentum, total kinetic energy, and the mass of all particles are conserved.
