Inverse Compton scattering off black body radiation in high energy physics and gamma (MeV—TeV) astrophysics

Inverse Compton scattering (ICS) of charged particles off black body radiation (BBR) is considered and exact angular and energy differential distributions are derived for general conditions and important special cases. The results may be applied to accelerator experiments, to estimate the ICS contribution of thermal cavity photons, and to astrophysics, where the ICS of cosmic rays is often important. In particular, the ICS energy spectrum recently measured at LEP is obtained and cosmic ray gamma bursts are explained both in terms of their origin and spectra. Weak (at the limit of sensitivity) gamma fluxes are predicted, with energies of hundreds of TeV from the remnants of the SN1006 supernova, and of only tens of TeV (due to cosmic BBR cascading) from relic extragalactic high-energy sources produced by jets in active galactic nuclei such as 3C279, Mrk421, and Mrk501 blazars.