Thermodynamics, Wave-theory, and the Compton Effect

Abstract

PROF. A. H. COMPTON'S own explanation of the remarkable phenomenon discovered by him is well known and is set out very clearly in his recent book on “X-rays and Electrons.” Briefly, it is that radiation is of a corpuscular nature, that the momentum of the impinging quantum detaches the electron from the atom and causes it to recoil, while the deviated quantum loses energy in the process and degrades in frequency. This view of the Compton effect, like Einstein's explanation of the emission of photo-electrons, approaches the relations between matter and radiation from a point of view so divergent from that of the familiar concepts of Maxwellian electro-dynamics, that it is scarcely possible to understand how this conception of radiation is physically reconcilable with the familiar explanations of interference and diffraction phenomena.