Collective Thomson scattering in magnetized electron and positron pair plasma and the application to induced Compton scattering

TL;DR

This paper investigates collective Thomson scattering in magnetized electron-positron pair plasma, revealing that the scattering cross-section remains significant despite near-zero net current, with implications for astrophysical phenomena like pulsars and fast radio bursts.

Contribution

It demonstrates that collective effects do not fully cancel in magnetized pair plasma, and provides estimates for induced Compton scattering relevant to astrophysical contexts.

Findings

Cross-section remains comparable to non-collective case in magnetized plasma.

Spectrum peaks at cyclotron overtones in finite temperature plasma.

Implications for pulsar and fast radio burst observations.

Abstract

We consider collective Thomson scattering of an incident X-mode wave (with the electric vector perpendicular to the background magnetic field) in magnetized electron and positron pair plasma. The collective effects do not exactly cancel out in contrast to the non-magnetized case. Still, the cross-section is comparable to the non-collective one, with the same suppression by the square of the cyclotron frequency in a strong magnetic field. The comparable cross-section holds even though the net current is nearly zero from the drift motion of electrons and positrons. The plasma response does not also affect the cross-section so much. The spectrum of the scattered wave in finite temperature plasma peaks at cyclotron overtones. Based on these results, we also estimate induced Compton scattering in strongly magnetized pair plasma. Implications for pulsars and fast radio bursts are discussed.