Wide-Angle electron-pair production with possibleC, T noninvariance: A speculative interpretation of hypothetical deviations from QED

Abstract

We discuss one possible interpretation of hypothetical deviations from quantum electrodynamics of a particular type. The basic hypothesis of the model provides an origin for the possible enhanced sensitivity of a high-energy, wide-angle electron-pair production experiment to such deviations, and also predicts that the deviation will be in the direction of an excess of wide-angle pairs. The model is subject to a feasible experimental test through a study of the pair production process with linearly polarized photons. This is due to the circumstance that the ordinary QED matrix element vanishes in the symmetric experimental arrangement, for photons polarized normal to the plane containing the beam and the electron-pair.