Astron. Astrophys. Suppl. Ser. 144, 307-316

Polarization for pair annihilation in strong magnetic fields

L. Semionova¹ - D. Leahy²

Send offprint request: L. Semionova

1 - Department of Physics, Universidad National, Heredia, 86-3000 Costa Rica
2 - Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Calgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4, Canada

Received November 18, 1999; accepted March 16, 2000

Abstract:

We derive the cross-section for one-quantum annihilation of polarized electrons and positrons. The electron and positron can occupy arbitrary Landau levels and have non-zero momentum parallel to the field, and the cross-section is calculated for any polarization of the radiation. When we take zero parallel momentum for the electron and sum over photon polarization we obtain results which agree with the existing calculation of Wunner et al. (1986).

Key words: elementary particles -- magnetic fields -- plasmas -- polarization -- radiation mechanism: thermal