Photoelectrons and a Corpuscular Quantum Theory of the Scattering of X-rays

Abstract

LORENTZ gives the radius of the spherical electron as ke²/mc², where the value of k depends on the assumptions made as to the distribution of the electricity in the sphere and as to the manner in which it is held together. The value of k, however, is of the order unity for the various assumptions. The writer has recently shown, in a paper on a corpuscular theory of the scattering of X-rays (Phys. Rev. 22, 233, 1923), that if an X-ray corpuscle be considered tentatively as a mathematical point moving with the speed of light, and if the value of k be taken as (8/3), then the electron has a radius such that the mass-scattering coefficient for X-rays in matter is that given by Thomson's theory, namely, 0.2 per gram for the light elements.