Proportionality of gravitational and electromagnetic radiation by an electron in an intense plane wave

Abstract

Accelerated charges emit both electromagnetic and gravitational radiation. Classically, it was found that the electromagnetic energy spectrum radiated by an electron in a monochromatic plane wave is proportional to the corresponding gravitational one. Quantum mechanically, it was shown that the amplitudes of graviton photoproduction and Compton scattering are proportional to each other at tree level. Here, by combining strong-field QED and quantum gravity, we demonstrate that the amplitude of nonlinear graviton photoproduction in an arbitrary plane wave is proportional to the corresponding amplitude of nonlinear Compton scattering. Also, introducing classical amplitudes we prove that the proportionality relies on the semiclassical nature of the electron's motion in a plane wave and on energy-momentum conservation laws, leading to the same proportionality constant in the classical and quantum case. These results deepen the intertwine between gravity and electromagnetism into both a nonlinear and a quantum level.