The matrix element for radiative Bhabha scattering in the forward direction

Abstract

We present an approximation to the matrix element for the process e+e- --> e+e-gamma, appropriate to the situation where one or both of the fermions are scattered over very small angles. The leading terms in the situation where all scattering angles are small contains not only terms quadratic in the electron mass, but also quartic and even sextic terms must be included. Special attention is devoted to the numerical stability of the resultant expression. Its relation to several existing formulae is discussed.