Laser-assisted electron-nucleon scattering

TL;DR

This paper theoretically analyzes how a circularly polarized laser field influences electron-nucleon scattering, revealing reductions in differential cross section and variations in electric form factors for different nucleons.

Contribution

It provides a detailed Dirac-Volkov formalism-based calculation of laser-assisted electron-nucleon scattering, comparing laser effects on DCS and form factors for proton and neutron.

Findings

Laser field reduces the differential cross section in both scattering processes.

Electric form factor decreases with higher incident electron energy in proton scattering.

Form factors remain unchanged by laser field strength up to 10^8 V/cm.

Abstract

In both absence and presence of a circularly polarized monochromatic electromagnetic pulse, we have analyzed the electron-nucleon scattering process, where the nucleon is assumed to be spinless with a spherical shape. We have provided the theoretical calculation of the differential cross section (DCS) by using the Dirac-Volkov formalism. This research paper aims to provide two comparisons: We first compare the DCS in the absence of the laser field with its corresponding laser-assisted DCS. A second comparison is made between the electron-proton and electron-neutron scattering processes to study the effect of the laser on both processes. The results obtained about the effect of the laser field on the DCS and the electric form factor have been discussed for both scattering processes. We have found that the DCS is reduced when the laser field is applied for both processes. In addition, the form factor is also decreased by raising the incident electron energy in electron-proton scattering, but it increases in electron-neutron scattering. Moreover, the form factors for both scattering situations are unchanged by raising the laser field strength up to $10^{8}\,V/cm$.