Question

What is the maximum wavelength shift for a Compton collision between a photon and a free photon?

Short answer

2.64 fm

Step-by-step solution

Identification of the given data

The given data is listed below as-

There is a collision between a photon and a free photon.

Significance of the momentum of a photon

The momentum of a photon is related to its energy and is given by-

$\mathrm{p}=\frac{\mathrm{E}}{\mathrm{c}}$

Here, E is the rest energy of a photon which is given by $E=m_e{c}^2$.

$m_e$ is the mass of electron and c is the speed of light.

To find the magnitude of maximum wavelength

The equation for wavelength is given by-

$\Delta {\lambda }_{\max }=\frac{hc}{m_p{c}^2}\left(1-\cos \varphi \right)$