B Is Inverse Compton Scattering Related to the Doppler Effect?

[Daniel Petka]

Isn't Inverse Compton scattering just the Doppler's effect? A fast moving electron gets slowed down by a photon. This photon then becomes blue shifted, becoming a gamma ray. Kinda makes sense.

 

[Jilang]

I don't think so. The Doppler effect arises from the frame of the observer relative to the emitter.

 

[Daniel Petka]

In our case the observer is the electron

 

[vanhees71]

No, Doppler effect refers to shifts in frequency/wavelength of radiation from a moving source compared to the radiation in the restframe of the source. No interaction is going on here that's responsible for the shift.

In inverse Compton scattering you have, as the name says, a scattering process.

 

[Daniel Petka]

Ok

 

[neilparker62]

Ok

You are nonetheless in good company with your thinking:

Above extract is from Compton's original paper: https://history.aip.org/history/exhibits/gap/PDF/compton.pdf

 

[neilparker62]

(sorry - I note I am responding to a dated thread)

 

[vanhees71]

Of course you can reinterpret it as a Doppler effect by first calculating the kinematics in the rest frame of the electron (which is the "usual" Compton-scattering setup) and then boost into the frame, where the electron is moving, but that's somehow not very efficient.