Radiative spin polarization of electrons in an ultrastrong magnetic field

Abstract

We calculate the spin flip rates for an electron in a homogeneous magnetic field for low excitations (N ≤ 5). Our results apply for all field strengths including those beyond the critical field strength at which the spin contributes as much to the electron's energy as its rest mass. Existing approximations either assume that the electron is in a sufficiently highly excited state such that its orbit can be assumed to be classical or the magnetic field be weak compared to the critical field. The regime of high mangetic field strength and low excitations is therefore poorly covered by them. By comparing our calculations to different approximations, we find that in the high field, low excitation regime the spin flip rates are lower and the equilibrium spin polarization is less pure then one would get by naively applying existing approximations in this regime.