Year: 1999
Type: article
Abstract: A free electron can temporarily gain a very significant amount of energy if it is overrun by an intense electromagnetic wave. In principle, this process would permit large enhancements in the center-of-mass energy of electron-electron, electron-positron, and electron-photon interactions if these take place in the presence of an intense laser beam. Practical considerations severely limit the utility of this concept for contemporary lasers incident on relativistic electrons. A more accessible laboratory phenomenon is electron-positron production via an intense laser beam incident on a gas. Intense electromagnetic pulses of astrophysical origin can lead to very energetic photons via bremsstrahlung of temporarily accelerated electrons.
Authors: Kirk T. McDonald, Konstantine Shmakov
Institution: Princeton University
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
Funder: U.S. Department of Energy
OpenAlex ID: W1990811190