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High-energy γ-photon polarization in nonlinear Breit-Wheeler pair production and γ polarimetry

Feng Wan, Yu Wang, Ren-Tong Guo, Yue-Yue Chen, Rashid Shaisultanov, Zhong-Feng Xu, Karen Z. Hatsagortsyan, Christoph H. Keitel, and Jian-Xing Li
Phys. Rev. Research 2, 032049(R) – Published 27 August 2020
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Abstract

The interaction of an unpolarized electron beam with a counterpropagating ultraintense linearly polarized laser pulse is investigated in the quantum radiation-dominated regime. We employ a semiclassical Monte Carlo method to describe spin-resolved electron dynamics, photon emissions and polarization, and pair production. Abundant high-energy linearly polarized γ photons are generated intermediately during this interaction via nonlinear Compton scattering, with an average polarization degree of more than 50%, further interacting with the laser fields to produce electron-positron pairs due to the nonlinear Breit-Wheeler process. The photon polarization is shown to significantly affect the pair yield by a factor of more than 10%. The considered signature of the photon polarization in the pair's yield can be experimentally identified in a prospective two-stage setup. Moreover, with currently achievable laser facilities the signature can serve also for the polarimetry of high-energy high-flux γ photons.

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  • Received 24 February 2020
  • Accepted 12 August 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.2.032049

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Accelerators & BeamsNonlinear Dynamics

Authors & Affiliations

Feng Wan1, Yu Wang1, Ren-Tong Guo1, Yue-Yue Chen2, Rashid Shaisultanov3, Zhong-Feng Xu1, Karen Z. Hatsagortsyan3,*, Christoph H. Keitel3, and Jian-Xing Li1,†

  • 1MOE Key Laboratory for Nonequilibrium Synthesis and Modulation of Condensed Matter, School of Science, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China
  • 2Department of Physics, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234, China
  • 3Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany

  • *k.hatsagortsyan@mpi-hd.mpg.de
  • jianxing@xjtu.edu.cn

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Vol. 2, Iss. 3 — August - October 2020

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