Analytical solutions for quantum radiation reaction in high-intensity lasers

Abstract

While the Landau-Lifshitz equation, which describes classical radiation reaction, can be solved exactly and analytically for a charged particle accelerated by a plane electromagnetic wave, no such solutions are available for quantum radiation reaction (the recoil arising from the successive, incoherent emission of hard photons). Yet upcoming experiments with ultrarelativistic electron beams and high-intensity lasers will explore the regime where both radiation-reaction and quantum effects are important. Here we present analytical solutions for the mean and variance of the energy distribution of an electron beam that collides with a pulsed plane electromagnetic wave, which are obtained by means of a perturbative expansion in the quantum parameter ${\chi }_0$. These solutions capture both the quantum reduction in the radiated power and stochastic broadening, and are shown to be accurate across the range of experimentally relevant collision parameters, i.e. GeV-class electron beams and laser amplitudes $a_0\lesssim 200$.

8 pages, 4 figures; to appear in Phys Rev A

References in corpus (7)

• Quantum radiation reaction effects in multiphoton Compton scattering
• Quantum radiation reaction in laser-electron beam collisions
• Effects of Radiation-Reaction in Relativistic Laser Acceleration
• Signatures of quantum effects on radiation reaction in laser -- electron-beam collisions
• Strong-Field QED Experiments using the BELLA PW Laser Dual Beamlines
• Radiation Reaction near the Classical Limit in Aligned Crystals
• Optimal Parameters for Radiation Reaction Experiments

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Variational Quantum Simulation of the Fokker-Planck Equation applied to Quantum Radiation Reaction
• Novel Signatures of Radiation Reaction in Electron-Laser Sidescattering