Pion creation via the Primakoff effect is normally associated with the electric fields of single atoms. However, in special cases when pions are produced by very high-energy photons aligned with a crystal axis, the crystal structure can influence the production of pions. Resonant peaks in the pion-creation rate, as a function of the incident photon energy, should occur when the momentum transfer in the alignment direction equals a reciprocal-lattice vector of the crystal. Numerical results presented for the example of a diamond crystal show that this coherent Primakoff effect could be observed with present-day accelerator technology.
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