Signatures of high-intensity Compton scattering

Abstract

We review known and discuss new signatures of high-intensity Compton scattering assuming a scenario where a high-power laser is brought into collision with an electron beam. At high intensities one expects to see a substantial redshift of the usual kinematic Compton edge of the photon spectrum caused by the large, intensity-dependent effective mass of the electrons within the laser beam. Emission rates acquire their global maximum at this edge while neighboring smaller peaks signal higher harmonics. In addition, we find that the notion of the center-of-mass frame for a given harmonic becomes intensity dependent. Tuning the intensity then effectively amounts to changing the frame of reference, going continuously from inverse to ordinary Compton scattering with the center-of-mass kinematics defining the transition point between the two.