Beta decay and other processes in strong electromagnetic fields
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ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS Theory
Beta Decay and Other Processes in Strong Electromagnetic Fields* E. Kh. Akhmedov** Max-Planck-Institut fur ¨ Kernphysik, Heidelberg, Germany Kurchatov Institute, Moscow, Russia Received November 18, 2010
Abstract—We consider effects of the fields of strong electromagnetic waves on various characteristics of quantum processes. After a qualitative discussion of the effects of external fields on the energy spectra and angular distributions of the final-state particles as well as on the total probabilities of the processes (such as decay rates and total cross sections), we present a simple method of calculating the total probabilities of processes with production of nonrelativistic charged particles. Using nuclear β decay as an example, we study the weak- and strong-field limits, as well as the field-induced β decay of nuclei stable in the absence of the external fields, both in the tunneling and multiphoton regimes. We also consider the possibility of accelerating forbidden nuclear β decays by lifting the forbiddeness due to the interaction of the parent or daughter nuclei with the field of a strong electromagnetic wave. It is shown that for currently attainable electromagnetic fields all effects on total β-decay rates are unobservably small. DOI: 10.1134/S1063778811080035
1. INTRODUCTION Study of quantum processes in intense electromagnetic fields is a very interesting subject. Strong external fields can help us to learn more about the properties of the involved particles and their interactions. Studying processes in strong fields may also have interesting implications for astrophysics and cosmology. Recently, there has been a renewed interest in this topic in connection with development of new powerful laser sources. In this paper I will discuss effects of strong external electromagnetic fields on various characteristics of quantum processes. In Section 2 a rather general qualitative analysis of these effects is given, whereas Sections 3 and 4 are dedicated to a specific example— nuclear β decay in the field of a strong electromagnetic wave. My interest in this topic was raised in the early 1980s by A.M. Dykhne, who called my attention to a paper published in the Physical Review Letters [1]. It was claimed in that paper that under the influence of electromagnetic fields of existing at that time powerful lasers β decay of tritium can be significantly accelerated. Simple estimates I made did not confirm this conclusion, but at the same time I could not pinpoint a mistake in the calculation done in [1]. The ∗ **
The text was submitted by the author in English. E-mail: [email protected]
problem was that the calculation was very complicated and difficult to follow. It was based on the standard at that time procedure of infinite summation of partial probabilities corresponding to absorption from the external wave (or emission into it) of all possible numbers of photons. This motivated me to look for a simpler way of calculation of the total probabilities of quantum processes in the fields of intense el
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