Effect of a strong laser field on electron-positron photoproduction by relativistic nuclei

Abstract

We study the influence of a strong laser field on the Bethe-Heitler photoproduction process by a relativistic nucleus. The laser field propagates in the same direction as the incoming high-energy photon, and it is taken into account exactly in the calculations. Two cases are considered in detail. In the first case, the energy of the incoming photon in the nucleus rest frame is much larger than the electron's rest energy. The presence of the laser field may significantly suppress the photoproduction rate at soon-available values of laser parameters. In the second case, the energy of the incoming photon in the rest frame of the nucleus is less than and close to the electron-positron pair-production threshold. The presence of the laser field allows for the pair-production process, and the obtained electron-positron rate is much larger than in the presence of only the laser and the nuclear field. In both cases, we have observed a strong dependence of the rate on the mutual polarization of the laser field and on the high-energy photon, and the most favorable configuration is with laser field and high-energy photon linearly polarized in the same direction. The effects discussed are, in principle, measurable with presently available proton accelerators and laser technology.

Pair production in rotating electric fields

“…Unfortunately, any attempt at verifying this understanding in macroscopic electric fields is hampered by the exponentially small production rate ∼ exp[−πm 2 /(eE)], where m is the electron mass being huge for typical laboratory field strengths E [1][2][3]. The rapid development of optical or X-ray high-intensity lasers has lead to many suggestions for schemes for a first discovery [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14], also including the combination of lasers and strong Coulomb fields [15][16][17][18].…”

“…For a complete picture of the solution as a function of t and p, we have to solve the equation for several values of q. With this method, the equation of motion of the Wigner function can be brought to the simple forṁ w =Mw, (17) where the tilde notation indicates as before that the corresponding functions are evaluated along the path p = π q (t), and the resulting function is then understood as a function of q, e. g.,w(t, q) ≡ w(t, p = π q (t)). For a suitable choice of π 0 , the characteristics π q (t) coincide with the classical momentum space paths of electrons in the external field according to…”

The non-linear Compton scattering in plasma obtained using a novel analytical solution of the strong-field Klein-Gordon

“…4 Due to the rapid development in laser technology, 5-8 strong-field QED attracts increasing scientific attention. [9][10][11][12][13][14] First, the strong laser field may enable a first experimental exploration of the exotic vacuum properties listed above. Second, the interaction of ultra intense laser with matter above a certain intensity is dominated by strong-field QED scattering processes (especially the lowest order ones, namely the non-linear Compton and Breit-Wheeler scatterings).…”

Resonant Production of an Ultrarelativistic Electron-Positron Pair by a Gamma Quantum in the Field of a Nucleus and a Laser Wave

“…It should be noted that the crossed channel of the concerned process is a spontaneous bremsstrahlung of an ultrarelativistic electron in the field of a nucleus and a plane monochromatic wave 19 . In addition, we would like to point out some works where authors draw attention to the nonresonant PPP and discuss related issues [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28] .…”