Head-on collision of ultrarelativistic charges

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the electromagnetic radiation emitted during the head-on collision of two ultrarelativistic charges, deriving explicit field expressions and radiation patterns, with implications for analogous gravitational collisions.

Contribution

It provides a detailed derivation of the electromagnetic field and radiation emitted in ultrarelativistic charge collisions, extending understanding of high-speed particle interactions.

Findings

Explicit expression for the electromagnetic field of accelerated charges

Calculation of radiation burst during charge collision

Discussion of the distributional structure of emitted radiation

Abstract

We consider the head-on collision of two opposite-charged point particles moving at the speed of light. Starting from the field of a single charge we derive in a first step the field generated by uniformly accelerated charge in the limit of infinite acceleration. From this we then calculate explicitly the burst of radiation emitted from the head-on collision of two charges and discuss its distributional structure. The motivation for our investigation comes from the corresponding gravitational situation where the head-on collision of two ultrarelativistic particles (black holes) has recently aroused renewed interest.