Spin effects in strong-field laser-electron interactions

The electron spin degree of freedom can play a significant role in relativistic scattering processes involving intense laser fields. In this contribution we discuss the influence of the electron spin on (i) Kapitza-Dirac scattering in an x-ray laser field of high intensity, (ii) photo-induced electron-positron pair production in a strong laser wave and (iii) multiphoton electron-positron pair production on an atomic nucleus. We show that in all cases under consideration the electron spin can have a characteristic impact on the process properties and their total probabilities. To this end, spin-resolved calculations based on the Dirac equation in the presence of an intense laser field are performed. The predictions from Dirac theory are also compared with the corresponding results from the Klein-Gordon equation.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure

Dynamics of quantum spin chains and multi-fermion excitation continua

We use the Jordan-Wigner representation to study dynamic quantities for the spin-1/2 XX chain in a transverse magnetic field. We discuss in some detail the properties of the four-fermion excitation continuum which is probed by the dynamic trimer structure factor.Comment: Presented at the SCES '05 - The International Conference on Strongly Correlated Electron Systems (Vienna, July 26-30, 2005