X-Rays

The recent discovery of x-ray scotch tape poses an interesting physics problem. It seems that the x-rays have an energy of up to 300 kev. This is a very large number compared to any binding energies encountered in ordinary atomic phenomena. Typical chemical bonds are hundreds of thousands of times smaller. Even an innermost electron of the highest Z atom has less than half that binding energy. So where does the energy come from?

My best guess: somehow the act of pulling off the tape turns some of the polymers into some kind of particle accelerators, perhaps by piling up charge in a smaller and smaller region. Anybody have a better idea?

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