Hu H, Müller C. Relativistic three-body recombination with the QED vacuum.
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2011;
107:090402. [PMID:
21929215 DOI:
10.1103/physrevlett.107.090402]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/29/2011] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
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.
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