Abstract
BOTHE and Geiger have recently performed an experiment on the Compton effect (Die Naturwissenschaften, 13, p. 440, May 15, 1925; Zs. f. Phys., 32, p. 639, 1925) indicating that the recoil electron, and the photoelectron emitted by the scattered radiation, appear simultaneously. Prof. A. H. Compton has made another experiment (Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., 11, p. 303, 1925), showing that the direction in which the scattered radiation acts in producing ionisation, and the direction of the recoil electron, are related. The natural interpretation of these experiments is in terms of a corpuscular theory of radiation, in which a corpuscular quantum, glancing off a scattering atom with emission of a recoil electron, very soon hits another atom and emits a photoelectron. This contradicts the suggestion, discussed by Bohr, Kramers, and the writer (Phil. Mag., 47, p. 785, 1924), that there was a virtual field, like the ordinary fields of optical theory, emitted during the stationary states of the atom, the function of which was to induce a probability of transition; for on that view the probabilities of ejection of electrons by the scattering and absorbing atoms would be independent, both being induced by a radiation field existing continuously, and the two electrons would be in general ejected at different times and in unrelated directions. I wish to point out, however, that a corpuscular theory still is not in conflict with the main part of the idea of virtual fields.
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SLATER, J. The Nature of Radiation. Nature 116, 278 (1925). https://doi.org/10.1038/116278a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/116278a0
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