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The Journal of Light Scattering

Lorentz-Compton Paradox and the Designing of a Double-Win Crucial Scattering Experiment

Yongchao Gan

Published Jan 1, 2006• 1 citation
OpenAlex

Abstract

From the discussion of whether Compton effect exists in the region of visible light or not to the research of experimental confirmation of whether the quantum theory of light can contain the classical electromagnetic theory of light in classical condition or not,Lorentz-Compton paradox is discovered. For solving this paradox,a feasible,sensitive and double-win crucial experiment is designed on the basis of inverse Compton scattering.

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The Compton scattering experiment is widely regarded as one of the great triumphs oftwentieth-century physics. It demonstrated that electromagnetic radiation carries bothenergy and momentum and that these quantities are transferred to matter in accordancewith precise conservation laws. Historically, the experiment is alleged to have providedcompelling support for Einstein's light-quantum hypothesis and contributed significantly tothe acceptance of the photon concept. But modern questions are legitimately raised.An important distinction is frequently overlooked. The Compton experiment does notdirectly observe a photon as a discrete elementary object. Rather, it observes measurablequantities before and after an interaction between electromagnetic radiation and matter.The photon thus remains only an inferred explanatory construct.This paper examines Compton scattering from both its historical interpretation and an SP3conditionable-medium perspective. Two important historical and philosophicalobservations are highlighted: (1) that electromagnetic radiation unquestionably carriesenergy and momentum regardless of the interpretive framework employed, and (2) that noperson has ever directly observed an individual photon itself.These distinctions remain relevant when considering whether momentum transfernecessarily requires an elementary photon particle or may alternatively reflect the actionof a physically real medium occupying space.

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From the discussion of whether Compton effect exists in the region of visible light or not to the research of experimental confirmation of whether the quantum theory of light can contain the classical electromagnetic theory of light in classical condition or not,Lorentz-Compton paradox is discovered. For solving this paradox,a feasible,sensitive and double-win crucial experiment is designed on the basis of inverse Compton scattering.
By the historical and methodological pondering over the development process of modern physics,based on the research work done by Arndt,Zurek,Brune,Myatt and so on,the problem of the wave-particle duality,the boundary between classic physics(world)and quantum physics(world)and the quantum decoherence of object particles is extended to the boundary of electromagnetic fields between classic and quantum in this paper.Thus a Lorentz-Compton paradox is discovered and a feasible,sensitive and dual-success crucial experiment is designed.The analysis above shows that the experiment would give impetus to physics,no matter what result(positive or negative)it may bring about.Therefore,a crucial experiment that might lead the direction of physics development is given,and a vivid case that the historical and methodological thinking on the study of sciences drives it into success is presented in our paper.
The discovery of the Compton effect at the end of 1922 was a decisive event in the transition to the new quantum mechanics of 1925-1926 because it stimulated physicists to examine anew the fundamental problem of the interaction between radiation and matter. I first discuss Albert Einstein's light-quantum hypothesis of 1905 and why physicists greeted it with extreme skepticism, despite Robert A. Millikan's confirmation of Einstein's equation of the photoelectric effect in 1915. I then follow in some detail the experimental and theoretical research program that Arthur Holly Compton pursued between 1916 and 1922 at the University of Minnesota, the Westinghouse Lamp Company, the Cavendish Laboratory, and Washington University that culminated in his discovery of the Compton effect. Surprisingly, Compton was not influenced directly by Einstein's light-quantum hypothesis, in contrast to Peter Debye and H.A. Kramers, who discovered the quantum theory of scattering independently. I close by discussing the most significant response to that discovery, the Bohr-Kramers-Slater theory of 1924, its experimental refutation, and its influence on the emerging new quantum mechanics.
Abstract The discovery of the Compton effect at the end of 1922 was a decisive event in the transition to the new quantum mechanics of 1925‐1926 because it stimulated physicists to examine anew the fundamental problem of the interaction between radiation and matter. I first discuss Albert Einstein's light‐quantum hypothesis of 1905 and why physicists greeted it with extreme skepticism, despite Robert A. Millikan's confirmation of Einstein's equation of the photoelectric effect in 1915. I then follow in some detail the experimental and theoretical research program that Arthur Holly Compton pursued between 1916 and 1922 at the University of Minnesota, the Westinghouse Lamp Company, the Cavendish Laboratory, and Washington University that culminated in his discovery of the Compton effect. Surprisingly, Compton was not influenced directly by Einstein's light‐quantum hypothesis, in contrast to Peter Debye and H.A. Kramers, who discovered the quantum theory of scattering independently. I close by discussing the most significant response to that discovery, the Bohr‐Kramers‐Slater theory of 1924, its experimental refutation, and its influence on the emerging new quantum mechanics.
Chapter I The origins of quantum physics I The Compton effect — a strange dichotomy in the nature of electromagnetic radiation In a series of experiments conducted between 1919 and 1923, Arthur Holly Compton (Figure 1.1) investigated the scattering of monochromatic (single-wavelength) X-rays from graphite targets. He found that the radiation scattered at an angle 0 to the incident beam contained, in addition to radiation of the same wavelength as the incident radiation, a second component with a considerably longer wavelength. The existence of this second component in the scattered radiation could not be explained by the well-established theory of the scattering of electromagnetic waves by electrons. Compton considered instead the process illustrated in Figure 1.2, in which a particle of electromagnetic radiation, collides with a slow moving electron, which then recoils absorbing some of the X-ray particle’s energy. Treating the process as a collision between particles, and using only the (relativistic) conservation laws of energy and momentum, Compton was able to account for the effect completely. However, at the same time, in the same experiment, Compton was using interference effects, depending wholly on the wave model, in order to determine the wavelength of the scattered radiation. So here was an experiment which apparently required the simultaneous use of both the wave and particle models of electromagnetic radiation for the interpretation of the results! The existence of this strange dichotomy in the nature of electromagnetic radiation was just one indication of the need for a radical revision of views regarding the physical world.
The Compton scattering experiment is widely regarded as one of the great triumphs oftwentieth-century physics. It demonstrated that electromagnetic radiation carries bothenergy and momentum and that these quantities are transferred to matter in accordancewith precise conservation laws. Historically, the experiment is alleged to have providedcompelling support for Einstein's light-quantum hypothesis and contributed significantly tothe acceptance of the photon concept. But modern questions are legitimately raised.An important distinction is frequently overlooked. The Compton experiment does notdirectly observe a photon as a discrete elementary object. Rather, it observes measurablequantities before and after an interaction between electromagnetic radiation and matter.The photon thus remains only an inferred explanatory construct.This paper examines Compton scattering from both its historical interpretation and an SP3conditionable-medium perspective. Two important historical and philosophicalobservations are highlighted: (1) that electromagnetic radiation unquestionably carriesenergy and momentum regardless of the interpretive framework employed, and (2) that noperson has ever directly observed an individual photon itself.These distinctions remain relevant when considering whether momentum transfernecessarily requires an elementary photon particle or may alternatively reflect the actionof a physically real medium occupying space.