KLEIN-NISHINA FORMULA

KLEIN, O (+) Y. NISHINA.

Über die Streuung von Strahlung durch freie Elektronen nach der neuen relativistischen Quantendynamik von Dirac.

Berlin, Springer, 1929. 8vo. Bound in contemporary half cloth with gilt lettering, In "Zeitschrift für Physik", Band 52, 1929. Entire volume offered. Two stamps to title page, otherwise fine. Pp. 853-68. [Entire volume: VIII, 894 pp].

First appearance of the important paper which constitutes one of the first results obtained from the study of quantum electrodynamics and "played an important role in discussions of the applicable limits of quantum mechanics to studies of cosmic rays and nuclear physics." (DSB).

"In early 1928 Nishina returned to Copenhagen and worked with Oskar Klein. As a result of their cooperation, the Klein-Nishina formula was completed in October of the same year, before Nishina's return to Japan. In 1923 the quantum (particle) nature of X rays was discovered by Arthur Compton. Nishina had once made an experimental approach to this phenomena at the Cavendish Laboratory. The relation among the increased wavelength of the scattered X rays, the energy of recoiled electrons, and the scattering angle was accounted for by the quantum nature. In 1928 Nishina and Klein calculated the cross section and intensity of the Compton scattered radiation by the use of Dirac's new relativistic quantum mechanics of electrons. They succeeded in a complicated calculation by doing this separately and checking it together. (Nishina also brought this method of calculation with a team back to Japan.)
Nishina and Klein searched for the solution of Dirac's wave equation in the case of a free electron (initially at rest) in the field of a plane electromagnetic wave." (DSB).

The Klein-Nishina was one of the first results obtained from the study of quantum electrodynamics. Consideration of relativistic and quantum mechanical effects allowed the development of an accurate equation for the scattering of radiation from a target electron. Before this derivation, the electron cross section had been classically derived by the British physicist and discoverer of the electron, J.J. Thomson. However, scattering experiments showed significant deviations from the results predicted by the Thomson cross section. Further scattering experiments agreed perfectly with the predictions of the Klein-Nishina formula.

Order-nr.: 49255