4

The second answer to this question describes how this process might occur, and I'm curious for more details about it:

  1. What is the probability distribution of the interaction producing electron-positron pairs (and what's the general process for calculating it)?
  2. Is it possible to produce beams of positrons and/or electrons, through this process?

I would love some references that describe this kind of interaction in depth.

Community
  • 1
blueberryfields
  • 203
  • 1
    I use to thinking that photon don't interact at all (because they are bosons), but then again I'm approaching this from a semiconductor background. Maybe you want more of a quantum electrodynamics explanation? Edit. Just read the link, yes it seems you do want a QED answer. – boyfarrell Nov 05 '13 at 14:08
  • It's a very rare reaction which of course needs the combined energy of the photons to be larger than twice the electron rest mass. Far more common is positron and electron creation from a single photon in the presence of a nucleus as described in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pair_production – Virgo Dec 29 '16 at 01:08

1 Answers1

1

What is the probability distribution of the interaction producing electron-positron pairs (and what's the general process for calculating it)?

The probability can be calculated using the Feynman diagrams

twophot

In this case the wiggly lines are the photons and the solid the electron positron ones.

Is it possible to produce beams of positrons and/or electrons, through this process?

It might be possible but not very efficient for electrons, there are much more efficient ways. Positron beams are also generated with general scatterings and isolating the positrons into beam lines. The crossections are much higher. Also nuclear beta+ sources are more efficient than two photon production.

Gamma gamma colliders have been proposed for studying the higgs, as the crossection rises with energy.

anna v
  • 233,453