Elastic scattering of 0.1-1-MeV photons

Abstract

Theoretical values of Rayleigh scattering amplitudes for the $K$ shell and for higher atomic shells are calculated from the second-order $S$ matrix of quantum electrodynamics. The calculations are combined with nuclear Thomson scattering to predict elastic scattering differential cross sections for photon energies between 100 keV and 1 MeV, and for elements with $Z$ ranging from 30 to 82. The resulting cross sections are compared with recent high-precision measurements.