Comptonization of an Isotropic Distribution in Moving Media: Higher Order Effects

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
We consider the Comptonization of an isotropic radiation field by a thermal distribution of electrons with nonvanishing bulk velocity. We include all relativistic effects, including induced scattering and electron recoil, in the derivation of a kinetic equation that is correct to O(θ2e, βθ2e, β2θe), where β is the bulk velocity (in units of c) and θe is the ratio of the electron temperature to mass. The result given here manifestly conserves photon number, and it easily yields the energy transfer rate between the radiation and electrons. We also confirm recent calculations of the relativistic corrections to the thermal and kinematic Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect.