Photon splitting and Compton scattering in strongly magnetized hot plasma

TL;DR

This paper investigates photon splitting in strongly magnetized electron-positron plasma, calculating amplitudes, polarization rules, and absorption rates, and compares it with Compton scattering to understand radiation transfer in magnetar environments.

Contribution

It introduces new splitting channels enabled by plasma effects and provides detailed calculations of amplitudes and rates in a hot, magnetized plasma environment.

Findings

New photon splitting channels are allowed in plasma, forbidden in vacuum.

Calculated absorption rates considering photon dispersion and wave function renormalization.

Comparison shows the significance of photon splitting relative to Compton scattering in magnetar models.

Abstract

The process of photon splitting is investigated in the presence of strongly magnetized electron-positron plasma. The amplitude of the process is calculated in general case of plasma with nonzero chemical potential and temperature. The polarization selection rules and corresponding partial amplitudes for allowed splitting channels are obtained in the case of charge-symmetric plasma. It is found that the new splitting channel forbidden in magnetized vacuum becomes allowed. The absorption rates of the photon splitting are calculated with taking into account of the photon dispersion and wave function renormalization. In addition, the comparison of photon splitting and Compton scattering process is made. The influence of the reactions under consideration on the radiation transfer in the framework of magnetar model of SGR burst is discussed.