https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-011-1778-z
Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
Pair production by γ-rays on electrons
Threshold for the momentum recoil detection
Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía y Física, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Dr. Medina Allende s/n, Ciudad Universitaria, Córdoba, 5008, Argentina
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Received:
1
June
2011
Revised:
6
October
2011
Published online:
26
October
2011
Abstract
One of the most promising processes to measure polarization of high energy gamma rays is the pair production in the electron field. In the limit of high photon energy ω and for some threshold for the momentum recoil detection (p 0), the distributions for the polar and azimuthal angles (and thus, the total cross section) are, in a first approximation, independent of the photon energy.
Starting from Vinokurov et al.’s (Sov. Phys. JETP 36:602, 1973) calculation, we find an analytical expression for the total cross section as a function of p 0 and show that, when the photon energy increases, it only increases the production of electron recoil with momentum lower than p 0.
This result is useful to develop a Monte Carlo algorithm to discard electron recoil with momentum lower than the detection threshold in simulation of detectors.
© Springer-Verlag / Società Italiana di Fisica, 2011
