Thermal pair production from photon-photon collision: Breit–Wheeler process at finite temperature

Abstract

Abstract In this paper we examine the pair production through the Breit–Wheeler process $$\gamma ~\gamma \rightarrow e^+ e^-$$ γ γ → e + e - in a thermal background. We compute the thermal contribution to the Breit–Wheeler differential cross section within the thermofield dynamics formalism. We evaluate in details the cross section for this process, which possess a surprisingly simple expression valid for any temperature $$\beta $$ β , from which we discuss some physically relevant aspects. We also consider the high temperature regime of the cross section in order to have a better understanding about its thermal behavior.