Depolarization of synchrotron radiation of a relativistic electron beam
Abstract
We present a theoretical study on the radiative self-polarization of a high-energy electron beam propagating perpendicular to a strong magnetic field. Recently, a similar setup has been proposed as a source of polarized electron and photon beams. We focus on the dependence of electron and radiation polarization on the dimensionless parameter , which is proportional to the product of electron energy and magnetic field strength. The numerical solution of the balance equation shows that the resulting electron beam polarization increases rapidly as a function of for and saturates at a value of approximately . If , the rate of self-polarization decreases significantly. At the same time, a substantial or nearly complete depolarization of synchrotron radiation is observed, particularly for an electron beam with spins initially aligned parallel to the field.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2505.11249,
title = {Depolarization of synchrotron radiation of a relativistic electron beam},
author = {O. Novak and M. Diachenko and R. Kholodov},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.11249},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
7 pages, 4 figures