Time-scale of Compton scattering

IxRxPhysicist

Hey all,
Anyone know if there is a δt to Compton scattering or is it an instantaneous event, entertaining classical physics....billiard balls colliding in an elastic collision.

Cheers

mfb

That depends on your interpretation. Relating the transferred energy to a time via ##\delta t \approx \frac{\hbar}{\delta E}## might give some interesting results.

IxRxPhysicist

Interesting. Not to go out there too much but that does beg the notion that every event (even instantaneous ones) can be given some infinitesimal duration relative to Planck time.

IxR

mfb

We don't know how physics at the planck scale looks like.

IxRxPhysicist

Not challenging that notion.

IxR