PHOTON SCATTERING

77

This is called the Thomson cross section, and it is a factor 8/3 larger than the area r2 e of the electron. The units in Equation (2.106) are correct as is, there is no need to add powers of or c. As was the case for Rayleigh scattering, this allowed Thomson to derive Equation (2.106) using classical electrodynamics. If the incident photon is polarized along the x-axis but the outgoing photons polarization is not observed we get d = r2 e d
2

1 (k) (k )
=1

2 2 2 = r2 e (sin + cos cos )

(2.107)

Now there is dependence, made possible by the fact that a direction perpendicular to the incident photons direction is dened by its polarization. Interestingly, for forward scattering ( = 0) we nd that the dependence disappears as it should. If the incident photon is unpolarized and the outgoing photon is required to be polarized along 1 (k ) we get d 1 = r2 e2 d
2 =1

(k) 1 (k )

2 2 2 =1 2 re (sin + cos ) 2 =1 2 re

(2.108)

This cross section is independent of and . If instead we require the outgoing photon to be polarized along 2 (k ) we get d 1 = r2 e2 d
2 =1

(k) 2 (k )

2 2 2 2 2 =1 2 re (cos cos + cos sin ) 2 2 =1 2 re cos

(2.109)

This is a remarkable result when compared with Equation (2.108). It is 2 zero for = /2 and equals 1 2 re for = 0 or . We see that scattering at a certain angle can cause the outgoing photon to be polarized and the polarization is a maximum for = /2. Reect on why the roles of 1 (k ) and 2 (k ) are so different.