Compton wavelength

The Compton wavelength is a quantum mechanical property of a particle, defined as the wavelength of a photon the energy of which is the same as the rest energy of that particle (see mass–energy equivalence). It was introduced by Arthur Compton in 1923 in his explanation of the scattering of photons by electrons (a process known as Compton scattering).

The standard Compton wavelength $λ$ of a particle of mass $m$ is given by

\lambda ={\frac {h}{mc}},

where $h$ is the Planck constant and $c$ is the speed of light. The corresponding frequency $f$ is given by

f={\frac {mc^{2}}{h}},

and the angular frequency $ω$ is given by

\omega ={\frac {mc^{2}}{\hbar }}.

The CODATA 2018 value for the Compton wavelength of the electron is $2.426 31023867 (73) \times 10 -12 m$ . Other particles have different Compton wavelengths.

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