Compton wavelength

The Compton wavelength of a particle of mass $m$ is ${\lambda }_C=h/(mc)$.

For a photon scattered through angle $\theta$ by an initially stationary electron,

For a charged Dirac particle, incoming momenta $p,k$ and outgoing momenta $p^{\prime },k^{\prime }$ obey $p+k=p^{\prime }+k^{\prime }$. The two QED diagrams have internal fermion momenta $p+k$ and $p-k^{\prime }$, giving $s$ and $u$ channels. The amplitude is proportional to $\bar{u}(p^{\prime })[/{ϵ}^{\prime \ast }R(p+k)/ϵ+/ϵR(p-k^{\prime })/{ϵ}^{\prime \ast }]u(p)$, where $R(q)=(/q+m)/(q^2-m^2+i0)$. It is related to particle-antiparticle two-photon annihilation by crossing symmetry, with appropriate changes to external wavefunctions and conjugations.

Double Compton scattering is $e^{-}+\gamma \to e^{-}+\gamma +\gamma$, together with its inverse. The forward reaction has one incoming and two outgoing photons, so it changes their number and can source the divergence of the photon number current. Ordinary Compton scattering has one incoming and one outgoing photon and conserves photon number. Forward and inverse rates can balance without either reaction individually conserving it.