In
chemistry,
nuclear physics, and
particle physics,
inelastic scattering is a fundamental
scattering process in which the kinetic energy of an incident particle is not conserved (in contrast to
elastic scattering). In an inelastic scattering process, some of the energy of the incident particle is lost or increased. Although the term is historically related to the concept of
inelastic collision in
dynamics, the two concepts are quite distinct; the latter refers to processes in which the
total kinetic energy is not conserved. In general, scattering due to inelastic collisions will be inelastic, but, since elastic collisions often transfer kinetic energy between particles, scattering due to elastic collisions can also be
inelastic, as in
Compton scattering (see below).