From Compton Scattering of photons on targets to Inverse Compton Scattering of electron and photon beams

Abstract

We revisit the kinematics of Compton Scattering (electron-photon interactions producing electrons and photons in the exit channel) covering the full range of energy/momenta distribution between the two colliding particles, with a dedicated view to statistical properties of secondary beams that are generated in beam-beam collisions. Starting from the Thomson inverse scattering, where electrons do not recoil and photons are back-scattered to higher energies by a Lorentz boost effect (factor $4\gamma^2$), we analyze three transition points, separating four regions. These are in sequence, given by increasing the electron recoil (numbers are for transition points, letters for regions): a) Thomson back-scattering, 1) equal sharing of total energy in the exit channel between electron and photon, b) deep recoil regime where the bandwidth/energy spread of the two interacting beams are exchanged in the exit channel, 2) electron is stopped, i.e. taken down at rest in the laboratory system by colliding with an incident photon of $mc^2/2$ energy, c) electron back-scattering region, where incident electron is back-scattered by the incident photon, 3) symmetric scattering, when the incident particles carry equal and opposite momenta, so that in the exit channel they are back-scattered with same energy/momenta, d) Compton scattering ($a'$ $la$ Arthur Compton, see ref.4), where photons carry an energy much larger than the colliding electron energy. For each region and/or transition point we discuss the potential effects of interest in diverse areas, like generating mono-chromatic gamma ray beams in deep recoil regions with spectral purification, or possible mechanisms of generation and propagation of very high energy photons in the cosmological domain.