Polarized QED cascades
| Autor: | D. Del Sorbo, Daniel Seipt, Alec Thomas, Christopher Ridgers |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
Physics
Photon General Physics and Astronomy FOS: Physical sciences Electron Polarization (waves) 01 natural sciences Physics - Plasma Physics 010305 fluids & plasmas Plasma Physics (physics.plasm-ph) High Energy Physics - Phenomenology Pair production Positron High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) Cascade Quantum electrodynamics 0103 physical sciences Photon polarization ddc:530 010306 general physics Spin-½ |
| Zdroj: | New journal of physics 23(5), 053025 (2021). doi:10.1088/1367-2630/abf584 |
| ISSN: | 1367-2630 |
| DOI: | 10.1088/1367-2630/abf584 |
| Popis: | By taking the spin and polarization of the electrons, positrons and photons into account in the strong-field QED processes of nonlinear Compton emission and pair production, we find that the growth rate of QED cascades in ultra-intense laser fields can be substantially reduced. While this means that fewer particles are produced, we also found them to be highly polarized. We further find that the high-energy tail of the particle spectra is polarized opposite to that expected from Sokolov-Ternov theory, which cannot be explained by just taking into account spin-asymmetries in the pair production process, but results significantly from "spin-straggling". We employ a kinetic equation approach for the electron, positron and photon distributions, each of them spin/polarization-resolved, with the QED effects of photon emission and pair production modelled by a spin/polarization dependent Boltzmann-type collision operator. For photon-seeded cascades, depending on the photon polarization, we find an excess or a shortage of particle production in the early stages of cascade development, which provides a path towards a controlled experiment. Throughout this paper we focus on rotating electric field configuration, which represent an idealized model and allows for a straightforward interpretation of the observed effects. Comment: 31 pages, 5 figures |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
|