Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-short-options-paper-of-the-physics-prelims-of-the-university-of-oxford/2019/s3/2/c/solution

For complete photon backscatter , the electron recoils forward and momentum conservation gives
Combining this with conservation of energy and writing gives
For , the final ratio is approximately four, so
Within the stated nonrelativistic equations the unsimplified relation is implicit and has higher-order recoil corrections; the displayed final approximation is all that the small-shift assumption supports. Exact relativistic Compton recoil kinematics gives , and therefore exactly at backscatter. Agreement at leading order does not make the nonrelativistic derivation exact at arbitrary photon energy.

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