Resonant Effects in a Photoproduction of Ultrarelativistic Electron-Positron Pairs on a Nucleus in the Field of the X-ray Pulsar

Abstract

The resonant photoproduction of the electron-positron pairs on a nucleus near a surface of the X-ray pulsar was studied theoretically. The main feature of the processes, which are responsible for the formation of the electron-positron fluxes, is a capability to occur in a resonant way in the electromagnetic field of the X-ray pulsar. One of the properties of the resonant case is that the initial process of second order in the fine structure constant in an external field effectively reduces into two successive processes of the first order due to the fact that in the resonant conditions intermediate virtual electron (positron) becomes a real particle. It is shown that the resonances are possible only when the initial gamma quantum energy is more than the threshold energy, which significantly depends on the number of absorbed photons of an external electromagnetic field. Additionally, in the resonant conditions, the energies of the particles depend on the outgoing angle of a positron (channel A) or an electron (channel B). It is shown that the resonant differential cross section has an extremely large magnitude in units αZ2re2. A mechanism to explain the presence of anomalous fluxes of ultrarelativistic positrons near the surface of an X-ray pulsar was proposed.

Keywords

• external X-ray field
• Oleinik’s resonances
• X-ray pulsar
• gamma quantum
• nucleus