2019/09/03 by S. Tang, Suo Tang, Anton Ilderton +2 · 1 citation
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Annihilation #Atomic physics #Electron #High-pressure geophysics and materials #Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics #Mathematics #Nuclear physics #Photon #Physics #Plane (geometry) #Plane wave #Positron #Quantum mechanics #Radiation Detection and Scintillator Technologies #Wave packet #hep-ph #physics.plasm-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreva.100.062119
published as Phys. Rev. A 100, 062119 (2019) · 10 pages, 11 figures
arxiv created 2019/09/03 · openalex publication_date 2019/12/19 · arxiv updated 2019/12/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We study the 2\ensuremath→1 process of electron-positron pair annihilation to a single photon in a plane-wave background. The probability of the process in a pulsed plane wave is presented, and a locally constant field approximation is derived and benchmarked against exact results. The stricter kinematics of annihilation (compared to the 1\ensuremath→2 processes usually studied) leads to a stronger dependence on the incoming particle states. We demonstrate this by studying the effect that initial-state wave packets have on the annihilation probability. The effect of annihilation in a distribution of particles is studied by incorporating the process into Monte Carlo simulations.