Polarized QED cascades
Abstract
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.
- Authors:
-
- Helmholtz Institute, Jena (Germany); GSI-Helmholtzzentrum fur Schwerionenforschung, Darmstadt (Germany); Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
- Univ. of York (United Kingdom)
- SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
- Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); US Army Research Office (ARO); US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR); National Science Foundation (NSF); Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1808882
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-76SF00515; W911NF-16-1-0044; FA9550-16-1-0121; 1804463; EP/M018156/1
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- New Journal of Physics
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 23; Journal Issue: 5; Journal ID: ISSN 1367-2630
- Publisher:
- IOP Publishing
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS
Citation Formats
Seipt, Daniel, Ridgers, Christopher P., Del Sorbo, Dario, and Thomas, Alec R. Polarized QED cascades. United States: N. p., 2021.
Web. doi:10.1088/1367-2630/abf584.
Seipt, Daniel, Ridgers, Christopher P., Del Sorbo, Dario, & Thomas, Alec R. Polarized QED cascades. United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/abf584
Seipt, Daniel, Ridgers, Christopher P., Del Sorbo, Dario, and Thomas, Alec R. Tue .
"Polarized QED cascades". United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/abf584. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1808882.
@article{osti_1808882,
title = {Polarized QED cascades},
author = {Seipt, Daniel and Ridgers, Christopher P. and Del Sorbo, Dario and Thomas, Alec R.},
abstractNote = {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.},
doi = {10.1088/1367-2630/abf584},
journal = {New Journal of Physics},
number = 5,
volume = 23,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue May 18 00:00:00 EDT 2021},
month = {Tue May 18 00:00:00 EDT 2021}
}
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