Resonant Compton scattering of photons from bound electrons in weakly coupled plasmas

Plasma screening effects on resonant Compton scattering of photons by bound atomic electrons from the ground state of hydrogenic ions in dense weakly plasmas are investigated. The particle interaction potential in weakly coupled plasmas is obtained by the Debye-Huckel model. The screened wave functions and energy eigenvalues for the ground and excited states of the target ion are obtained by the Ritz variation method. The nonperturbative expression for the transition matrix element near resonance is obtained by the basic lowest-order photon-perburbation Hamiltonian in the electronic dipole representation. The resonant Compton scattering cross section including the plasma screening effect is found to be greater than that neglecting the plasma screening effect. It should be noted that the plasma screening effect increases the cross section at resonance. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S1070-664X(99)05008-9].