Differential cross sections for quasi-free Compton scattering from the proton and neutron bound in the deuteron have been measured using the Glasgow/Mainz tagging spectrometer at the Mainz MAMI accelerator together with the Mainz 48 cm $\oslash$ $\times$ 64 cm NaI(Tl) photon detector and the G\"ottingen SENECA recoil detector. The data cover photon energies ranging from 200 MeV to 400 MeV at $\theta^{LAB}_\gamma=136.2^\circ$. Liquid deuterium and hydrogen targets allowed direct comparison of free and quasi-free scattering from the proton. The neutron detection efficiency of the SENECA detector was measured via the reaction $p(\gamma,\pi^+ n)$. The "free" proton Compton scattering cross sections extracted from the bound proton data are in reasonable agreement with those for the free proton which gives confidence in the method to extract the differential cross section for free scattering from quasi-free data. Differential cross sections on the free neutron have been extracted and the difference of the electromagnetic polarizabilities of the neutron have been obtained to be $\alpha-\beta= 9.8\pm 3.6(stat){}^{2.1}_1.1(syst)\pm 2.2(model)$ in units $10^{-4}fm^3$. In combination with the polarizability sum $\alpha +\beta=15.2\pm 0.5$ deduced from photoabsorption data, the neutron electric and magnetic polarizabilities, $\alpha_n=12.5\pm 1.8(stat){}^{+1.1}_{-0.6}\pm 1.1(model)$ and $\beta_n=2.7\mp 1.8(stat){}^{+0.6}_{-1.1}(syst)\mp 1.1(model)$ are obtained. The backward spin polarizability of the neutron was determined to be $\gamma^{(n)}_\pi=(58.6\pm 4.0)\times 10^{-4}fm^4$.

Elastic scattering of linearly polarized photons on protons has been measured between 3.2 and 3.7 GeV for four-momentum transfers ranging from −0.1 to −0.7 (GeV/ c ) 2 . The observed cross section asymmetry in this range is consistent with zero within ±0.05.

The recoil proton polarization of proton Compton scattering (γp→γp) was measured in the photon energy range from 500 MeV to 1000 MeV atθ∗=100° and from 400MeV to 800 MeV atθ∗=130°. A recoil proton and a scattered photon were detected in coincidence with a magnetic spectrometer and a photon detector. The recoil proton polarization was measured with a carbon polarimeter. The results are compared with a phenomenological analysis based on an isobar model and a dynamical analysis based on the dispersion relation.

Compton scattering from the proton was investigated at s=6.9 (GeV/c)**2 and \t=-4.0 (GeV/c)**2 via polarization transfer from circularly polarized incident photons. The longitudinal and transverse components of the recoil proton polarization were measured. The results are in excellent agreement with a prediction based on a reaction mechanism in which the photon interacts with a single quark carrying the spin of the proton and in disagreement with a prediction of pQCD based on a two-gluon exchange mechanism.

Results are presented on the elastic scattering of photons by protons. The incident photon energy ranged from 0.55 GeV to 4.5 GeV, and the four-momentum transfer t ranged from 0.12 to 1.0 (GeV/c)2. The data at large angles, 60°<θ*<115°, are characterized by a pronounced excitation of the D13(1518) resonance, a shoulder in the 1688-MeV mass region, and a precipitous drop thereafter in the cross section as a function of incident energy. The low-t data are characterized by a diffraction slope of 5 (GeV/c)−2. The data are inconsistent with the predictions of the vector-dominance model if the latter is restricted to ρ0, ω, and φ vector mesons.

The differential cross sections of the proton Compton scattering around the second resonance have been measured at a c.m. angle of 90° for incident photon energies between 450 MeV and 950 MeV in steps of 50 MeV, and at an angle of 60° for energies between 600 MeV and 800 MeV. The results show that the peak of the 2nd resonance agrees with that of the pion photoproduction process. We also calculated the proton Compton scattering based on unitarity and fixed- t dispersion relations. The calculation describes well the data of the cross section and the recoil proton polarization.

Proton Compton scattering has been measured in a coincidence experiment at photon energies between 2.2 and 7 GeV and four-momentum transfers t between −0.06 and −0.85(GeV/ c ) 2 . For ∣ t ∣ ⩽ 0.4 (GeV/ c ) 2 fits of the form d σ /d t = ( A · exp( Bt )) yield forward cross sections A in good agreement with the values calculated from the total hadronic γ p cross section via the optical theorem and the forward dispersion relation. The slopes B do not show a significant energy dependence, the mean value being 5.7 ± 0.4 (GeV/ c ) −2 . The cross section is substantially larger than predicted by the vector-meson dominance model.

Compton scattering on protons has been measured at a mean photon energy of 6 GeV and four-momentum transfers − t between 0.06 and 0.60 (GeV/ c ) 2 . The differential cross section shows a diffraction-like behaviour. The cross section extrapolated to t =0 is in fair agreement with the optical point. Discrepancies with the vector meson dominance model are pointed out.

Differential cross sections of proton Compton scattering have been measured in the energy range between 400 MeV and 1050 MeV at C.M.S. angles of 150° and 160°.

Differential cross sections of proton Compton scattering have been measured in the angular range between 50° and 130° at incident photon energies from 900 MeV to 1150 MeV. A sharp dip in the angular distribution found by a Bonn group at 110° in the photon energy region around 900 MeV is not observed in the present measurement. A new dip-bump structure is found at photon energies above 1050 MeV, which is similar to that for pion-nucleon scattering.

Differential cross sections of proton Compton scattering have been measured in the energy range between 375 MeV and 1150 MeV in steps of 25 MeV at c.m. angles of 130°, 100° and 70°. The recoil proton was detected with a magnetic spectrometer. In coincidence with the proton, the scattered photon was detected with a lead-glass Čerenkov counter of the total absorption type.

Cross-section values for Compton scattering on the proton were measured at 25 kinematic settings over the range s = 5-11 and -t = 2-7 GeV2 with statistical accuracy of a few percent. The scaling power for the s-dependence of the cross section at fixed center of mass angle was found to be 8.0 +/ 0.2, strongly inconsistent with the prediction of perturbative QCD. The observed cross-section values are in fair agreement with the calculations using the handbag mechanism, in which the external photons couple to a single quark.

Compton-scattering cross sections from hydrogen (γp→γp) and from deuterium have been measured at four-momentum transfer t in the range 0.014<~−t<~0.17 GeV2 and photon energies of 8 and 16 GeV. Fits to our proton data of the form dσdt=AeBt give B≈7.8 GeV−2 and an intercept A which is in agreement with the optical point. Both coherent scattering from deuterons and incoherent scattering from neutrons and protons are seen from deuterium. A small difference between the neutron and proton cross sections is seen, indicating the presence of about a 3% isovector t-channel exchange amplitude in addition to the predominant isoscalar amplitude. The vector-dominance model predicts lower cross sections (by at least 20%) for both the hydrogen and deuterium cases.