Møller scattering at low energy

Møller scattering is one of the most fundamental processes in QED. Its knowledge at high precision is necessary for a variety of modern nuclear and particle physics experiments. However, most treatments have neglected the electron mass, which is an approximation that breaks down at relevant low energies. In this thesis, existing soft-photon radiative corrections were combined with new hard-photon bremsstrahlung calculations to take into account the effect of photon emission at any photon energy. The electron mass was included at all steps. The radiative corrections were compiled into a Monte Carlo event generator. To test the results, an experiment was designed, constructed, installed, and executed at the MIT High Voltage Research Laboratory. Measurements are reported, comparing the simulated radiative Møller spectra to data at 2.5 MeV. Good agreement between the measurements and the new calculation is observed in the momentum spectrum at three angles.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Epstein, Charles Samuel

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Richard G. Milner.

• Physics.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/119903

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/119903