Polarization effects in the photon-induced process of electron-positron pair creation in a magnetic field, studied in the ultra-quantum-mechanical approximation

Abstract

The photon-induced process of electron-positron pair creation in a strong homogeneous magnetic field, provided that the polarization of particles is arbitrary, has been considered. The polarization of a photon is described in terms of the well-known Stokes parameters, and the relevant probabilities of the process turn out to have simple analytical expressions, which allows us to analyze the polarization and spin effects. A substantial influence of the linear polarization of a photon on the spin orientations of electrons and positrons has been demonstrated.