Influence of Coulomb Correlation on the Scattering of X-Ray by an Electron Gas. I. RPA Approximation

Abstract

Effect of Coulomb Correlation on the line profile of the X-ray which is scattered inelastically by an electron in the degenerate electron gas has been calculated. The calculation is performed by marking use partly of dielectric formulation in random phase approximation and partly of canonical transformation method. The effect is quite small for large angle scattering, but for small angle scattering it becomes essential. Particularly for the angle where the momentum transferred to the photon is smaller than the plasma cut off momentum, the scattering is interpreted as the excitation of plasma oscillation. The discrepancy between the experimental value of the line width and the calculated value by Donovan and March cannot be explained by Coulomb correlation. A brief indication for the future experiments is given.