Calculating extremely high-energy bremsstrahlung in matter

Ultra-relativistic electrons initiate electromagnetic showers in ordinary matter that evolve through bremsstrahlung and pair production. At very high energy, the quantum mechanical duration of bremsstrahlung becomes longer than the mean free time to elastically scatter from the medium, leading to a significant suppression known at the Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal (LPM) effect. For some ranges of bremsstrahlung photon and initial electron energies $(k_γ,E)$, the duration becomes so long that it will also overlap with subsequent pair production by the bremsstrahlung photon, disrupting LPM suppression and drastically changing LPM predictions. We have previously calculated this change for extremely high energies ($k_γ\gg 2$ TeV or more, depending on the medium), for which the electron mass and medium-induced photon mass could be ignored. In this paper, we extend that analysis to lower (but still ultra-relativistic) energy by accounting for those masses, leading to a rich map of behavior in different regions of $(k_γ,E)$.

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Publication Details

Journal
Physical review. D/Physical review. D.
Published
2026-10-15
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1103/8rg8-tmgg
Primary Topic
Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Calculating extremely high-energy bremsstrahlung in matter

Omar Elgedawy, Peter B. Arnold, Shahin Iqbal, J. Bautista
Physical review. D/Physical review. D.
Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena
article

Calculating extremely high-energy bremsstrahlung in matter

Omar Elgedawy, Peter B. Arnold, Shahin Iqbal, J. Bautista
article en

Abstract

Ultra-relativistic electrons initiate electromagnetic showers in ordinary matter that evolve through bremsstrahlung and pair production. At very high energy, the quantum mechanical duration of bremsstrahlung becomes longer than the mean free time to elastically scatter from the medium, leading to a significant suppression known at the Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal (LPM) effect. For some ranges of bremsstrahlung photon and initial electron energies $(k_γ,E)$, the duration becomes so long that it will also overlap with subsequent pair production by the bremsstrahlung photon, disrupting LPM suppression and drastically changing LPM predictions. We have previously calculated this change for extremely high energies ($k_γ\gg 2$ TeV or more, depending on the medium), for which the electron mass and medium-induced photon mass could be ignored. In this paper, we extend that analysis to lower (but still ultra-relativistic) energy by accounting for those masses, leading to a rich map of behavior in different regions of $(k_γ,E)$.

Physical review. D/Physical review. D.
National Science Foundation, European Commission, National Natural Science Foundation of China
Openalex Percentile: Top 67%
Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena
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