Abstract
This chapter discusses processes leading to the formation of X-rays and gamma-rays. It describes X-ray brems-emission by a nonrelativistic gas. The chapter discusses the scattering of relativistic electrons by photons. The appearance of cosmic synchrotron X-ray and gamma-radiation is relatively improbable. In stellar atmospheres and in outbursts, nuclei are excited in nuclear reactions and as a result of collisions with fast particles, and this can lead to gamma radiation. The exciting agents in interstellar and intergalactic space are the cosmic and subcosmic rays. The spectrum of the nuclear gamma-radiation can be either continuous or discrete. A hot gas, which is partially or completely ionized, is a source of brems-, recombination-, and line-spectrum X-ray emission. At sufficiently high temperatures, bremsstrahlung plays the main role. X-ray bremsstrahlung is observed in X-ray stars and also in the solar spectrum. Under conditions of a weak interaction between the radiation and the particles, the state of the radiation field, usually or at least in a whole number of cases, does not affect the electron distribution function.
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