Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-a-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2015/paper-2/section-a/1/a/solution

The photon relation gives . The diffraction-limited angular scale of an aperture of diameter is therefore
For a uniformly illuminated circular aperture, the Rayleigh criterion instead gives . Both express the same requested estimate. This is an ideal diffraction limit, conditional on the effective diameter behaving as a coherent imaging aperture; photon energy and diameter alone do not specify the performance of a practical gamma-ray telescope.

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