Quantum Electrodynamics of Internal Source X-Ray Holographies: Bremsstrahlung, Fluorescence, and Multiple Energy X-Ray Holography

Abstract

Quantum electrodynamics (qed) is used to derive the differential cross sections measured in the three new experimental internal source ensemble x-ray holographies: bremsstrahlung (BXH), fluorescence (XFH), and multiple-energy (MEXH) x-ray holography. The polarization dependence of the BXH cross section is also obtained. For BXH, we study analytically and numerically the possible effects of the virtual photons and electrons which enter qed calculations in summing over the intermediate states. For the low photon and electron energies used in the current experiments, we show that the virtual intermediate states produce only very small effects. This is because the uncertainty principle limits the distance that the virtual particles can propagate to be much shorter than the separation between the regions of high electron density in the adjacent atoms. We also find that using the asymptotic form of the scattering wave function causes about a 5-10% error for near forward scattering.