TY - JOUR
T1 - One- and two-photon Compton scattering in strong magnetic fields
AU - Bussard, R. W.
AU - Alexander, S. B.
AU - Mészros, P.
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2015 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 1986
Y1 - 1986
N2 - We calculate the Compton scattering cross section in a very strong magnetic field (B1012 G), such as encountered in pulsars, for arbitrary photon and electron energies. We include the effect of the vacuum polarization in the weak-field limit (Bm2c3/Latin small letter h with strokee), as well as the plasma polarizability. We include explicitly radiative transitions between any pair of Landau levels, and include also two-photon scattering. The latter process, due to the presence of the cyclotron resonance, becomes comparable to nonresonant one-photon scattering when excited final states are allowed, and acts as a source of photons which is more important than bremsstrahlung at low plasma densities. The treatment is based on the relativistic S matrix, and the cross sections are averaged over a relativistic Maxwellian electron distribution. The results are compared with previous nonrelativistic calculations, and it is found that even for temperatures as low as 10 keV there are significant effects that are peculiar to the relativistic treatment.
AB - We calculate the Compton scattering cross section in a very strong magnetic field (B1012 G), such as encountered in pulsars, for arbitrary photon and electron energies. We include the effect of the vacuum polarization in the weak-field limit (Bm2c3/Latin small letter h with strokee), as well as the plasma polarizability. We include explicitly radiative transitions between any pair of Landau levels, and include also two-photon scattering. The latter process, due to the presence of the cyclotron resonance, becomes comparable to nonresonant one-photon scattering when excited final states are allowed, and acts as a source of photons which is more important than bremsstrahlung at low plasma densities. The treatment is based on the relativistic S matrix, and the cross sections are averaged over a relativistic Maxwellian electron distribution. The results are compared with previous nonrelativistic calculations, and it is found that even for temperatures as low as 10 keV there are significant effects that are peculiar to the relativistic treatment.
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U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevD.34.440
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevD.34.440
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0001055969
VL - 34
SP - 440
EP - 451
JO - Physical review D: Particles and fields
JF - Physical review D: Particles and fields
SN - 0556-2821
IS - 2
ER -