Study of Compton Broadening Due to Electron-Photon Scattering

Abstract

We have investigated the effects of Compton broadening due to electron-photon scattering in hot stellar atmospheres. A purely electron-photon scattering media is assumed to have plane parallel geometry with an input radiation field localized on one side of the slab. The method is based on the discrete space theory of radiative transfer for the intensity of emitted radiation.The solution is developed to study the importance of scattering of radiation by free electrons in high temperature stellar atmospheres which produces a brodening and shift in spectral lines because of the Compton effect and the Doppler effect arising from mass and thermal motions of scattering electrons.It is noticed that the Comptonized spectrum depends on three parameters: the optical depth of the medium, the temperature of the thermal electrons and the viewing angle.We also showed that the Compton effect produces red shift and asymmetry in the line. These two effects increase as the optical depth increases. It is also noticed that the emergent specific intensities become completely asymmetric for higher optical depths.

Keywords

• Stars: atmospheres
• Radiative transfer
• Scattering