Elastic scattering
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Elastic scattering is a form of particle
Rutherford scattering
When the incident particle, such as an
Optical elastic scattering
- In Thomson scattering light interacts with electrons (this is the low-energy limit of Compton scattering).[3]
- In Rayleigh scattering a medium composed of particles whose sizes are much smaller than the wavelength scatters light sideways. In this scattering process, the energy (and therefore the wavelength) of the incident light is conserved and only its direction is changed. In this case, the scattering intensity is inversely proportional to the fourth power of the reciprocal wavelength of the light.[4]: 2
Nuclear particle physics
For particles with the mass of a proton or greater, elastic scattering is one of the main methods by which the particles interact with matter. At relativistic energies, protons, neutrons,
Besides elastic scattering, charged particles also undergo effects from their elementary charge, which repels them away from nuclei and causes their path to be curved inside an electric field. Particles can also undergo inelastic scattering and capture due to nuclear reactions. Protons and neutrons do this more often than heavier particles. Neutrons are also capable of causing fission in an incident nucleus. Light nuclei like deuterium and lithium can combine in nuclear fusion.
See also
- Elastic collision
- Inelastic scattering
- Scattering theory
- Thomson scattering
References
- ^ “Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) for materials characterization,” B.J. Inkson, “Materials Characterization Using Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) Methods,” 2016. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/chemistry/elastic-scattering
- ^ Warren Siegel (1999). Fields. p. 362. Retrieved 2024-04-30.
- ^ Froula, Dustin H. Plasma scattering of electromagnetic radiation. Academic Press is an imprint of Elsevier, 2011.
- ^ Young, Andrew T. "Rayleigh scattering." Phys. Today 35.1 (1982): 42-48.