Large-angle Rayleigh scattering of linearly polarized, hard synchrotron x rays by krypton and xenon

Using linearly polarized synchrotron x rays with energies E=21.2–43.7 keV, differential cross sections for large-angle elastic photon scattering by Kr and Xe were measured. In the case of Xe, the energy region close to the K-shell binding energy ($B_K$=34.561 keV) was investigated in detail. The experimental results agree well with theoretical predictions based upon the numerical energy-shifted second-order S-matrix theory, and with high-energy-limit-corrected anomalous-scattering-factor predictions.