Compton scattering of relativistic electrons in compact X-ray sources

The problem of single Compton scattering is considered and the resulting spectrum, angular distribution and polarization of scattered photons in a general case are obtained. The inverse Compton scattering (ICS) for arbitrary energies of electronsE and photons ₀ is investigated in detail. In the case of isotropically-distributed initial photons and relativistic electrons, a strong rise of the scattered spectrum near the upper edge takes place, starting from the values of the characteristic parameterb4E₀10 (in units of mc²=1). The energy-loss rate of relativistic electrons due to ICS is calculated. It is shown that the relativistic electrons of the energiesE100 MeV, when scattering on the X-rays with ₀~10KeV, transmit the dominant part of their energy to the photons which fall after scattering into the energy range of the electrons (100 MeV).The radiation spectrum of ICS, as well as the energy-losses of relativistic electrons distributed by power-lawE^–, are calculated. The radiation spectrum reveals the power-law behaviour with the different indices in two limits: the dependence ^–(1)/2 at ₀1 gradually changes to ^–(+1) ln (₀) law for ₀1.