Polarized Gamma Rays Made by Compton Scattering Available to Purchase

Two laboratories, at Tufts University and the Lebedev Institute in Moscow, have simultaneously developed a novel production mechanism for very highenergy gamma rays. Photons in a laser beam are Compton scattered off relativistic electrons in an accelerator. The method is likely to be of particular value because the gamma rays are produced with the same polarization properties as the incident laser light, and nearly 100% plane‐ and circularpolarized beams will be available for tests of T invariance in electromagnetic interactions and other high‐energy physics experiments.