Stochastic electron motion in colliding plane waves.

Abstract

The stochastic dynamics of an electron in counterpropagating linearly polarized laser beams is analyzed using a recently developed 3/2-dimensional Hamiltonian approach. It is shown that perpendicular canonical momenta suppress stochasticity, helping to explain the results from recently reported numerical studies of stochastic dynamics in a similar setting. The stochasticity in a perpendicular polarization setup is demonstrated. Lastly, the impact of radiation friction effects is considered, and shown to be negligible in the classical radiation reaction limit.