title: Relativistic three-body recombination with the QED vacuum.
abstract: Electron-positron pair annihilation into a single photon is studied when a second free electron is present. Focussing on the relativistic regime, we show that the photon emitted in the three-lepton interaction may exhibit distinct angular distributions and polarization properties. Moreover, the process can dominate over two-photon annihilation in relativistic electron-positron plasmas of few-MeV temperature. An analogy with three-body recombination of electrons with ions is drawn.
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Huayu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Carsten
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Müller