%0 journal article
%@ 1050-2947
%A Middents, W., Weber, G., Gumberize, A., Hahn, C., Krings, T., Kurz, N., Pfäfflein, P., Schell, N., Spillmann, U., Strnat, S., Vockert, M., Volotka, A., Surzhykov, A., Stöhlker, T.

%D 2023
%J Physical Review A

%P 012805 
%R doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.107.012805
%T Angle-differential cross sections for Rayleigh scattering of highly linearly polarized hard x rays on Au atoms
%U https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.107.012805
 
%X We perform a study on Rayleigh scattering of highly linearly polarized hard x rays on a thin Au foil target. In the study the angular distribution of the scattered radiation is analyzed in a relativistic regime both within and out of the plane of polarization of the incident beam. Within this experiment we scatter a synchrotron beam with a photon energy of 175 keV on a high-Z target foil, namely, gold. Our findings correlate well with state-of-the-art calculations of the scattering process performed in the framework of quantum electrodynamics and may have considerable impact on future experiments regarding a polarization-resolved analysis of Delbrück scattering. Furthermore, we show that the angular distribution of Rayleigh scattering can be used for a highly sensitive determination of the degree and orientation of the linear polarization of the incident hard-x-ray beam, if we rely on the theoretical framework.