Depolarization of Light Scattered by a Relativistic Plasma

The depolarization ratio ρ for the single particle light scattering spectrum of a relativistic plasma with a displaced Maxwell velocity distribution is calculated to the lowest significant order in β = v/c. (c is the light velocity; v is the electron velocity.) It is found that ρ reaches the order of magnitude 0.1 if the temperature increases beyond 108 °K, and that the plasma temperature can be determined by one single polarization measurement without spectral decomposition of the scattered radiation.