Abstract
In the scattering of relativistic spin-polarized electrons from point nuclei, two types of polarization correlations are compared: those of a left- or right-circular bremsstrahlung photon at the short-wavelength limit (when the outgoing electron is not observed) and those of an elastically scattered, left- or right--handed electron. Bremsstrahlung is calculated from the Dirac--Sommerfeld-Maue model, and elastic electron scattering is obtained from a partial-wave analysis. By considering a gold target and electron energies ${E}_{i}$ up to 20 MeV, a striking similarity of the respective polarization correlations is found to develop when the collision energy is increased beyond 5 MeV. From analytical Born results for light targets it is shown that only for a longitudinally spin-polarized electron do the respective polarization correlations agree in the limit ${E}_{i}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$. In the general case, a very high nuclear charge is needed in addition, leading to a sum rule for bremsstrahlung well known from elastic electron scattering.
Published Version
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