A Complete Order-alpha**3 Calculation of the Cross Section for Polarized Compton Scattering

Abstract

The construction of a computer code to calculate the cross sections for the spin-polarized processes e-gamma=>e-gamma,e-gamma-gamma,e-e+e- to order-alpha**3 is described. The code calculates cross sections for circularly-polarized initial-state photons and arbitrarily polarized initial-state electrons. The application of the code to the SLD Compton polarimeter indicates that the order-alpha**3 corrections produce a fractional shift in the SLC polarization scale of -0.1% which is too small and of the wrong sign to account for the discrepancy in the Z-pole asymmetries measured by the SLD Collaboration and the LEP Collaborations.