Generation of circularly polarized photons for a linear collider polarized positron source

Various methods of obtaining longitudinally polarized positrons for future linear colliders are reviewed. Special attention is paid to the schemes using circularly polarized high-energy photons for positron production. Most effectively such photons are obtained from electrons passing through a helical undulator or colliding with a circularly polarized laser wave. Spectrum and polarization of radiation emitted during helical motion of electrons are considered in detail. A new simple presentation of known formulas is used to account for the influence of the wave intensity, of the electron-beam angular divergence, of the collimation of radiation, and of the lateral and temporal profiles of the laser bunch on the radiation properties.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figure

Emission of polarized photons from unpolarized electrons moving in crystals

Radiation emitted by unpolarized high-energy electrons penetrating crystals may be linearly polarized. This occurs when the particle velocity makes an angle, with respect to some major crystal axis, being sufficiently larger than the axial-channelling angle. For such orientation, a complete description of spectral and polarization characteristics of the radiation is derived. At planar channelling, a non-perturbative contribution to the probability of the process appears caused by the plane field, and we must solve exactly a one~-~dimensional mechanical problem. For that, the approximate form of the actual plane potential is suggested which provides a precise fit for any crystal plane and an analytical solution to the motion problem. In a practical case, we must consider electron-photon showers developing in sufficiently thick crystals. For the first time, this development is described taking into account the polarization of photons. We discuss qualitative features of the phenomenon, present results of numerical calculations for thin and thick crystals, and evaluate the possibility of the use of differently oriented crystals in a polarized hard photon source.Comment: 16 pages, 7 PostScript figure

Coulomb effects in the spin-dependent contribution to the intra-beam scattering rate

Coulomb effects in the intra-beam scattering are taken into account in a way providing correct description of the spin-dependent contribution to the beam loss rate. It allows one to calculate this rate for polarized $e^{\pm}$ beams at arbitrarily small values of the ratio $\delta \varepsilon/\varepsilon$, characterizing relative change of the electron energy in the laboratory system during scattering event.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure

Photon splitting in atomic fields

Photon splitting due to vacuum polarization in the electric field of an atom is considered. We survey different theoretical approaches to the description of this nonlinear QED process and several attempts of its experimental observation. We present the results of the lowest-order perturbation theory as well as those obtained within the quasiclassical approximation being exact in the external field strength. The experiment where photon splitting was really observed for the first time is discussed in details. The results of this experiment are compared with recent theoretical estimations.Comment: 45 pages, 24 figure

Comparison of theory with experiment for positron production from high-energy electrons moving along crystal axes

Various positron distributions are obtained using an approach developed earlier for the description of electron-photon showers in axially aligned single crystals. Based on these distributions, characteristics of the positron yield measured in recent experiments are calculated. Theoretical estimations display a rather good agreement with experimental results obtained using 3 to 10 GeV electrons aligned to the - axis of the tungsten crystals.Comment: 10 pages, 6 Postscript figure