Approximation for radiation power of electrons due to inverse-Compton process in the black-body photon field

TL;DR

This paper introduces an accurate approximation for calculating inverse-Compton radiation power of electrons in a black-body photon field, enabling efficient modeling across various energy regimes.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel approximation method that simplifies inverse-Compton emissivity calculations, applicable to diverse electron spectra and energy regimes, reducing computational resources.

Findings

Accurate approximation valid from Thomson to Klein-Nishina limits

Enables modeling of non-power-law electron spectra

Provides new analytic expressions in the Thomson limit

Abstract

An approximation for the inverse-Compton radiation power of electrons in the isotropic black-body photon field is presented. The approximation allows one to calculate inverse-Compton emissivity as integral over the energies of incident electrons rather than over the field photon energies. Such an approach allows for accurate modeling of IC emission of electrons with energy spectra being different from power-law, in situation where the CPU resources are limited. High accuracy of this approximation allows one to use it in a wide range of conditions, from Thomson to extreme Klein-Nishina limits. The approach adopted results also in some new analytic expressions representing known results in the Thomson limit.