Signatures of linear Breit-Wheeler pair production in polarized γγ collisions

Abstract

The polarization characteristics of the linear Breit-Wheeler (LBW) pair-production process in polarized γγ colliders have been investigated via our developed spin-resolved binary collision simulation method. We find that the polarization of γ-photons modifies the kinematics of scattering particles and induces the correlated energy-angle shift of LBW pairs, and the latter's polarization characteristic depends on the helicity configures of scattering particles. We confirm that the polarized γγ collider with an asymmetric setup can be performed with currently achievable laser-driven high-density x rays and high-brilliance γ-photon beams to produce abundant polarized LBW pairs, fulfilling the detection power of polarimetries. Our method and results on the polarized LBW process have plenty of significant applications in strong-field physics, high-energy physics and astrophysics, such as calibrating and monitoring the polarized γγ collider and challenging the current understanding of astrophysical objects through enhancing the opacity of γ-photons to exacerbate the inconsistency between some observations and standard models.