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The Radiative Collisions of Positrons and Electrons

J. Katzenstein

  • Lyman Laboratory of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Phys. Rev. 78, 161 – Published 15 April, 1950

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRev.78.161

Abstract

The general matrix elements for the collision of two electrons (ee case) or a positron and an electron (pe case) accompanied by the emission of a quantum of radiation are formulated. It is expected that the two cross sections will differ considerably both because of the existence of a dipole for the pe case, and because of the essentially different nature of the exchange phenomenon in the pe case arising there from the possibility of virtual pair creation or annihilation rather than the indistinguishability of the particles. Two cases are calculated in detail; the non-relativistic limit and the extreme relativistic limit in which the quantum energy is restricted to E12 in the laboratory system. In the former case the cross section for the ee case is found to vanish if the momentum of the quantum is neglected, while the pe cross section is comparable to that for the "bremsstrahlung" process. In the latter case the cross sections of the two cases are of the same order of magnitude the ee cross section being greater because of the exchange terms, the exchange terms of the pe case being negligible in all of the cases considered.

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