Incoherent Scattering of Radiation by Plasmas. I. Quantum Mechanical Calculation of Scattering Cross Sections

The quantum electrodynamics of the scattering of radiation from an interacting, fully-ionized plasma is treated. The theory includes the effects of quantum statistics and is valid to all orders in many-particle perturbation theory. The scattering cross section is related to the partial conductivities of the interacting system. This reduces the problem of the inclusion of close Coulomb collisions, which lie outside of previous random-phase approximation calculations, to the calculation of collision corrected conductivities. The theory is applicable to degenerate quantum plasmas as well as to classical plasmas.