Thomson scattering

Thomson scattering is the elastic scattering of electromagnetic radiation by a free charged particle, as described by classical electromagnetism. It is the low-energy limit of Compton scattering: the particle's kinetic energy and photon frequency do not change as a result of the scattering.^[1] This limit is valid as long as the photon energy is much smaller than the mass energy of the particle: ⁠ $\nu \ll mc^{2}/h$ ⁠, or equivalently, if the wavelength of the light is much greater than the Compton wavelength of the particle (e.g., for electrons, longer wavelengths than hard x-rays).^[2]

^ Chen, Szu-yuan; Maksimchuk, Anatoly; Umstadter, Donald (December 1998). "Experimental observation of relativistic nonlinear Thomson scattering". Nature. 396 (6712): 653–655. arXiv:physics/9810036. Bibcode:1998Natur.396..653C. doi:10.1038/25303.
^ Froula, Dustin H.; Glenzer, Siegfried H.; Luhmann, Jr., Neville C.; Sheffield, John (2011). Plasma Scattering of Electromagnetic Radiation. doi:10.1016/C2009-0-20048-1. ISBN 978-0-12-374877-5.^{[page needed]}