Photon Electric Charge Assessment from Compton Scattering Cross Section Data

Abstract

The Photon charge has been determined from experimental and simulated Compton scattering cross section data. The 1st Born approximation using the Coulomb and the Yukawa potentials was used in the calculation of the cross section. The classical approach (Rutherford type cross section) corrected for relativistic kinematics was also used for the 662 Mev photon energy case. The photon mass was calculated from kinematic experimental data as previously done by the author. The photon mass and charge show a strong dependency on the energy of the incident photons. For photon energy of about 2E-6 Mev, the obtained mass and charge were about 7E-34 kg and 2E-26 C and for 662 Mev it was obtained 3E-32 kg and 4E-18 C. It is noted that even for a massless photon a non-zero charge is predicted. Considering the significant differences with other terrestrial experimental results (which also significantly differed among them) and the potential impact on current cosmological models, it is suggested the design of experiments (in a broad range of photon energy) in which the uncertainties are significantly reduced.