Laser-assisted nuclear photoeffect

TL;DR

This paper investigates how intense laser fields influence proton emission from nuclei during the nuclear photoeffect, revealing complex sideband structures in energy spectra through a nonperturbative S-matrix approach.

Contribution

It introduces a novel theoretical framework combining nuclear photoeffect with intense laser fields, applying nonperturbative methods from laser-atom physics to nuclear processes.

Findings

Laser fields create rich sideband structures in proton energy spectra.

The sideband features depend on laser parameters and field orientations.

The approach provides new insights into laser-nucleus interactions.

Abstract

Proton emission from nuclei via the nuclear photoeffect in the combined electromagnetic fields of a gamma-ray photon and an intense laser wave is studied. An S-matrix approach to the process is developed by utilizing methods known from the theory of nonperturbative laser-atom interactions. As a specific example, photo-proton ejection from halo nuclei is considered. We show that, due to the presence of the laser field, rich sideband structures arise in the photo-proton energy spectra. Their dependence on the parameters and relative orientation of the photon fields is discussed.