Relativistic three-body recombination with the QED vacuum
arXiv:1105.0279 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.090402
Abstract
Electron-positron pair annihilation into a single photon is studied when a second free electron is present. Focussing on the relativistic regime, we show that the photon emitted in the three-lepton interaction may exhibit distinct angular distributions and polarization properties. Moreover, the process can dominate over two-photon annihilation in relativistic electron-positron plasmas of few-MeV temperature. An analogy with three-body recombination of electrons with ions is drawn.
5 pages, 4 figures
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- Trident Pair Production in Colliding Bright X-ray Laser Beams