Experimental results for the radiation emission from ultrarelativistic electrons in targets of 0.03%-5% radiation length is presented. For the thinnest targets, the radiation emission is in accordance with the Bethe-Heitler formulation of bremsstrahlung, the target acting as a single scatterer. In this regime, the radiation intensity is proportional to the thickness. As the thickness increases, the distorted Coulomb field of the electron that is the result of the first scattering events, leads to a suppressed radiation emission per interaction, upon subsequent scattering events. In that case, the radiation intensity becomes proportional to a logarithmic function of the thickness, due to the suppression. Eventually, once the target becomes sufficiently thick, the entire radiation process becomes influenced by multiple scattering and the radiation intensity is again proportional to the thickness, but with a different constant of proportionality. The observed logarithmic thickness dependence of radiation intensity at intermediate values of the thickness can be directly interpreted as a manifestation of the distortion of the electron Coulomb field resulting from a scattering event. The Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal effect is explored with high primary energy using materials with low nuclear charge (Z). Also, targets that should give rise to the claimed interference effect in high-energy radiation emission from a structured target of thin foils are investigated.
The classical description of synchrotron radiation fails at large Lorentz factors, , for relativistic electrons crossing strong transverse magnetic fields B. In the rest frame of the electron this field is comparable to the so-called critical field B 0 ¼ 4:414 Â 10 9 T. For ¼ B=B 0 ' 1 quantum corrections are essential for the description of synchrotron radiation to conserve energy. With electrons of energies 10-150 GeV penetrating a germanium single crystal along the h110i axis, we have experimentally investigated the transition from the regime where classical synchrotron radiation is an adequate description, to the regime where the emission drastically changes character; not only in magnitude, but also in spectral shape. The spectrum can only be described by quantum synchrotron radiation formulas. Apart from being a test of strong-field quantum electrodynamics, the experimental results are also relevant for the design of future linear colliders where beamstrahlung-a closely related process-may limit the achievable luminosity.
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