Elastic photon scattering from the ground state and various excited states
of carbon atoms and ions has been investigated, using the S-matrix formalis
m, for incident photon energies ranging from 100 eV to 10 keV, contrasting
the results obtained for different configurations. The excited states consi
dered include hollow-atom states, where one or more inner shells are comple
tely vacated. Ionic cases are considered as a limit of excitation. Results
demonstrate how cross sections for different excited states group together
according to shared properties of the configurations, such as the number of
K electrons. Cross sections may exhibit deep dips below the K edge, depend
ing on the occupation of the subshells corresponding to the strongest trans
itions. Scattering from excited states can have significantly larger cross
sections than scattering from the ground state, particularly just below the
K resonance region, and therefore it needs to be considered in situations
where there is a large population of these excited stares. Results are inte
rpreted in terms of form-factor arguments and the qualitative behavior of i
ndividual subshell amplitudes. The angular dependence of cross sections can
be understood in terms of angle-dependent form factors and anomalous scatt
ering factors, taken to be angle independent. Cases are identified for whic
h excited-state total integrated cross sections are much larger than the co
rresponding cross sections for scattering from the ground state. Our main r
esults use an averaging over magnetic substates at the level of the amplitu
de, exact only for fully filled subshells, but generally appropriate for th
e carbon case considered, which simplifies the discussion and explains most
of the general features. We also present results for a hollow lithium atom
with and without this approximation to illustrate the differences that can
arise in certain circumstances.