Enhancement of Compton scattering by an effective coupling constant

The process of the energy interchange between radiation and matter provided by Compton scattering is relevant in many areas of physics. For example, in cosmology it keeps the matter at the same temperature as radiation [1]. Compton scattering is also a unique spectroscopy for condensed-matter physics, which has acquired greater importance with the advent of modern synchrotron sources [2–4]. For instance, it has been used to extract information about wave functions of valence electrons in a variety of systems ranging from ice [5,6] and water [7] to alloys [8] and correlated electron systems [9]. Moreover, Compton scattering can potentially help delineate confinements [10] and spin polarization effects [11] in nanoparticles. The Compton-scattering cross-section strength is determined by the classical electron radius, also known as the Thomson scattering length,