elastic scattering

At high energies, electrons zip through faster, with less time to “feel” the electrostatic forces, resulting in fewer of the good elastic scattering events.

Nuclear physicists measure the proton radius using the ‘elastic’ scattering of electrons from protons.

Proton elastic scattering and proton induced γ-ray emission cross-sections on 23Na from 2 to 5 MeV.

We also drop the elastic scattering term that is proportional to adc, which is negligible in this work.

A much more elusive process is the elastic scattering of photons; light bouncing off light, and nothing else being produced.