CHINESE

ASTRONOMY
AND ASTROPHYSICS
PERGAMON Chinese Astronomy and Astrophysics 27 (2003) 4-17

A D e t a i l e d Analysis of Annihilation
A b s o r p t i o n in ?-ray A s t r o n o m y t *
LIU Dang-bo LING Jia-jie CHEN Lei XU Ya-di YOU Jun-han
Institute for Space and Astrophysics, Department of Physics, Shanghai Jiaotong
University, Shanghai, 200030

Abstract The two-photon annihilation (?-7 annihilation) is an i m p o r t a n t ab-

sorption mechanism in the theory of radiative transfer in ?-ray astronomy. In this
paper, we try to change the known formulae of annihilation cross section given
by QED theory in the frame of m o m e n t u m center into a new expression in the
laboratory reference frame (the observer's frame) by means of relativistic trans-
formation, which is more useful for practical application. Also, we derive a sim-
plified direction-averaged expression for the annihilation cross section @(w, w ~) for
a general isotropic ambient radiation field and obtain direction-averaged thresh-
old condition of annihilation and the match condition, that have to be satisfied
by the energies of two interacting photons, hw and hw ~, to ensure the occurrence
of annihilation and to achieve the m a x i m u m annihilation probability. Finally, we
calculate the annihilation absorption coefficients k.r~(hw ) ,,, hw for three typical
ambient low-frequency radiation fields in astrophysics, i.e. the bremsstrahlung,
the black body, and the non-thermal power law field. We further give some
detailed physical discussions on the results of our calculation.

K e y w o r d s : radiative transfer: absorption mechanism - - methods: analytical

- - ?-rays: theory

1. I N T R O D U C T I O N

With the rapid progress in observations in the ? - r a y band in recent years, particularly
the discoveries of "),-ray bursts and ? - r a y pulsars, ? - r a y astronomy has grown into an
t Supported by National Natural Science Foundation and National Pandeng Plan of China
Received 2001-07-21
* A translation of Acta Astron. Sin. Vol. 43, No. 3, pp. 272-283, 2002

0275-1062/03/S-see front matter © 2003 Elsevier Science B. V. All rights reserved.

PII: S0275-1062(03)00003-1
 LIU Dang-bo et al. / Chinese Astronomy and Astrophysics 27 (2003) 4-17 5

important branch of contemporary astronomy and astrophysics. Compared to observations,

progress in fundamental theoretical studies of "r-ray astronomy is slower. For example, it is
difficult to find a satisfactory and generally accepted radiation mechanism with very high
radiation efficiency, operating in the 3'-ray band under believable physical conditions, and so
to successfully explain the new, observed bright sources, e.g. GRBs, "),-ray pulsars (Cheng
& Lu 2001; Piran 1999, 2000; Rees & Mdszdros 1992, 1998; Sari, Piran & Narayan 1998).
Likewise, we could mention another inadequacy in our knowledge: there is a lack of detailed
theoretical analysis on the absorption mechanism (Stecker & De Jager 1997, 1998; Salamon
& Stecker 1998; Stecker 2000). In this paper, we focus on the last topic, and try to give a
detailed analysis on an important 3'-ray absorption process, the 7-9' annihilation.
The motivation to improve the formulae of the absorption of 9'-V annihilation is that, so
far, the generally adopted formula of annihilation cross section a(/~), given by QED theory,
is expressed in the frame of momentum center, So. Furthermore, the ~ - v / c here is the
velocity of electron or positron produced after the annihilation reaction. Thus the given
a(f~) is inconvenient for the purpose of practical application. In Sec. 2, we try to derive
a more useful expression for the cross section a(w,w~,~) in the observer reference frame
S, by skillfully manipulating the relativistic transformation, a(w,w~,8) is expressed as a
function of the energies or frequencies w, w' and the included angle ~ between the directions
of the two interacting photons before annihilation. If the ambient annihilation radiation
field around the 3'-ray source is isotropic, as is generally the case in astrophysics, we can
further obtain a markedly simplified direction-averaged cross section ~(w, J ) in the S frame,
and hence a direction-averaged threshold condition and a match condition, that are to be
imposed on the two interacting photons to ensure the occurrence of annihilation and to
achieve the maximum annihilation probability. All of the derived formulae are very useful
in practice. Finally, based on the derived simplified cross section, we calculate the curves of
annihilation absorption coefficient k~.r(hw ) .v hw for three different ambient environments,
i.e. the bremsstrahlung field, the black body field and the non-thermal power law field,
which could be helpful for the purpose of quantitative analysis of the 3'-ray spectrum of
various optically thick sources.

2. B A S I C FORMULAE

2.1 A n n i h i l a t i o n C r o s s S e c t i o n a(w,~',0) in t h e O b s e r v e r ' s F r a m e S

Before we start our analysis, it seems necessary to re-list some well-known relevant
formulae (Eq. (1)-Eq. (5) in the following), and give some discussions. According to
QED theory, the annihilation cross section in the frame of momentum center So is given as
(Akhiezer & Berestetskii 1965; Berestetsklii & Lifshitz 1971):

1 2"1
~r(~) -----~Trrol" --/~2) [ (3 -- ~4)ln 1i -+- - - ~ - 2 ~ ( 2 - ] ~ 2 ) ] , (1)

e2
where ro - ~ is the classical radius of electron, ~ - v / c is the velocity of electron or
positron in the the So frame, produced after annihilation.
As mentioned above, the first thing one must to do is to re-express the cross section a as
a function of the energy hwo or frequency w0 of the interacting photons before annihilation
6 LIU Dang-bo et al. / Chinese Astronomy and Astrophysics 27 (2003) 4-17

(5Wo is the energy of photon in the momentum center frame the So). Obviously, in the
So frame, the two photons have equal energy hWo. fl can be re-expressed as fl - v / c =
mvm_._~-- C_aEo,Eo = E_ = E+ being the kinetic energy of the electron or positron in the So
system. Obviously, we have Eo = hwo due to the conservation of energy. From the relation
c2p 2 -~ E 2 - m20c4 = (hwo) 2 - m 2 c 4, we have

(2)
cp 7 1 -
~=-~00 =" \ hwo ]

And Eq. (1) becomes

\~o) 2+2\h~o) -\h~0] JX

In
(~0c2)+
~,Jo
/['hw°\2 1I 71_¢moc2~211+(moc2"~l]
- -
}
t--m-:oS t- r o,,j '
(3)

Eq. (1) and (3) are equivalent, which shows that in the non-relativistic limiting case,/7 << 1,
or hwo >moc 2, we have

o ~ _~~ o ~ . (4)
In the ultra-relativistic case,/7 N 1, or ~ o >> moc 2, Eq. (3) becomes
l

- \hwo ] 21n~,m----~-]-I ] , (5)

or

aER -- vrro2F-2[2In 2F - 1], i6)"

where F - ~ is the dimensionless photon energy in the So frame. From Eq. (5) we see.
that the cross section of annihilation decreases rapidly with increasing photon energy. And
Eq. (3) shows that the annihilation threshold of photon energy in the So frame is given by

hWO ~> moc 2 . (7)

Eqs. (4) and (5) show that the annihilation cross section rapidly decreases both in the
~ o >> moc 2 and hWo -+ m o c 2 cases.
The cross section shown above is given in the momentum center frame. But the cross
section is relativistic invariant (Akhiezer & Berestetskii 1965). Thus the new expression
of the cross section in the observer's frame S is easy to obtain: we only have to replace
the velocity D or the photon energy ~ o included in Eq. (1) or (3) by the corresponding
quantities in the S frame through the relativistic transformation. Denoting the energies of
the interacting photons in the observer's frame S as hw and hw', and the momenta as h k
and hk', the angle between the propagation directions of the two photons by 8, the total
 LIU Dang-bo et al. / Chinese Astronomy and Astrophysics 27 (~003) 4-17 7

momentum of the two photons is h K = h(k + k'); and the total energy is E = h(w + w').
Thus the total energy-momentum tensor of the two photons in the S frame is

( h K , ! E ) = (hk + hk', !(hw + hw')) . (8)

On the other hand, in the momentum center frame the So, the energies of the two
photons are the same (denoted by hWo), and the momenta are hko and -hko, respectively,
hence the total momentum of the two photons is hKo = O. Therefore in the So frame, the
total energy-momentum tensor is

(0 !.o) : (0 (0)
Transforming from the So to the observer's frame S, the scalar-invariance (PuPu) =
const, gives
1 A
h 2 ( k + k') 2 - ~ ( h w + t~') 2 = -:h2w 2 (10)
c~ C2 0"

Using the relations

hw hw'
k. k' = kk' cos0, hk = - - , hk' = , (11)
c c
from Eqs. (9) and (10), we get

1
~w. wl(1 - cos0) = Wo
2. (12)

Eq. (11) gives a useful transformation of photon energies or frequencies Wo --4 w,w',
from the momentum center frame So to the observer's frame S, then Eq. (2) is rewritten as

/3= i 1-2
?)tOc2
~
mo c2
7 (1 -
• hw--- cos0) -1 (13)

Combining Eqs. (1) and (12), we obtain the new expression of cross section a(w, wl,0)
in the S frame, as a function of the frequencies and the included angle of two photons before
annihilation, as we wanted.

2(moc=) 2
o(w,J,O) = 7rr2°(hw). (hw'). (1 - cos 8)
{[ 4(m°c2)2 4(moc2) 4 ]
2 + (no~) • ( n ~ ' ) • (1 - cos 0) - ( n ~ ) 2 . ( n ~ , ) 2 . (1 - cos o)2 ×

In [ i ( h w ) • (t~') • (1 - cos o) i ( h w ) • (hw') • (1 -cosO) 1

2(moc~)2 + 2--(-~o~)~ - -

2(m°c2)2 [1 + 2(m°c2)2
(14)
~1-(hw) - (h--~:('l-- cos0) [ (hw). (~--7) :'~'-- cos0)] } "
8 LIU Dang-bo et al. / Chinese Astronomy and Astrophysics 27 (2003) 4-17

Obviously, Eq. (13) is more useful than Eq. (1) for the purpose of practical application.
In the S frame, the threshold condition Eq. (6) becomes

h I z lww'(1 - cos0) _> mo c2. (15)

We see from Eq. (14) that, for given photon-energies hw and hw', no annihilation
reaction takes place if the propagating directions of the two photons are nearly parallel, i.e.
0 ~ 0. For given photon energies, hw, hw', the critical angle to realize annihilation is given
by

COS0cr" _~ 1 - 2 re°c2 m°c2

hw hw' (16)

2.2 Direction-averaged A n n i h i l a t i o n Cross Section #(w,w'). T h r e s h o l d Condi-

tion and M a t c h C o n d i t i o n in an Isotropic A m b i e n t R a d i a t i o n Field
The occurrence of the angle 0 in Eq. (13) causes complications in practical calculations.
However, in most realistic cases in astrophysics, the ambient radiation field the high energy
7-ray photons pass through, is isotropic, i.e., a point-like 7-ray source is surrounded by an
extended spherical radiation field with low frequency, in which the intensity I, at any point
is direction-independent. In this case, it is a good approximation to replace a(w, w', O) by the
direction-averaged cross section ~(w, w') to complete various calculations, and the resulting
set of formulae will be markedly simpler, as compared to Eq. (13). Because the effective
values of the angle 0 axe in the range (Scr, r) with equal angle probabilities for the isotropic
radiation field, the exact expression of the direction-averaged cross section is

#(w, w') = fo:r. a(w, w', e)2rr sin e de

f~:,. 27r sin e de (17)

But Eq. (16) is complicated for calculations. It is a good approximation to replace

cos0 in a(w,w',8) (Eq. (13)) by the direction-averaged value (see Eq. (15)), i.e.

four cos O 27r sin 0 dO moc 2 m0 c2

cos 0 = ~" = - h--'-~ t u z ' ' (18)
f ~ , 21r sin OdO
Inserting Eq. (17) into Eq. (11), Eq. (12) and Eq. (14), Eq. (11) becomes

! ho '+ (moc2?) = (h o) (19)

2
Eq. (12) turns out to be

l hw . tuz' - (moc2) 2
- -TT(m0e2) 2 , (20)

and the direction-averaged threshold condition Eq. (14) in isotropic field then becomes

(hw). ( ~ ' ) _> (moc2) 2 . (21)

 LIU Dang-bo et al. / Chinese Astronomy and Astrophysics 27 (2003) 4-17 9

Inserting the 8 in Eq. (19) into Eq. (1), we get a simplified direction-averaged expression
of cross section in the observer's frame S,

1 2 [ 1+8
&(w,w') = ~ T r r 0 ( 1 - 8 2 ) ( 3 - 8 4 ) l n l-_-8 - 28(2 - 82)] . (22)

Thus, the simplified formula of cross section (21) is of the same form as the original
expression (1) in the So frame, but the quantity/3 = v / c in Eq. (1) is replaced by the/~ given
by Eq. (19). To be specific, in the following we shall denote the energy of the tracer 7-ray
photon that passes through a given ambient radiation field by hw; and the energy of the
photon of the radiation field by hw'. Taking hw as a parameter, and putting hw = 1MeV,
10MeV, 100MeV, respectively, we calculate the ~(w, w t) -~ w ~ curves by use of Eqs. (19) and
(21), the results are shown in Fig. 1 (Note that the frequency w ~ is on logarithmic scale).

200

180
:'",: /"".. - - hco =I00 M e V
160 / "-, / "- ..........h c o = l O M e V
140 : ~ hco=lMeV
................

A" 120
Eo100
80
Io 60
40
2O
0 ............
i__:.....................
1E-3 0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1000
hco'=lMeV

Fig. 1 Direction-averaged annihilation cross section curves of two photons #(w, w') ~ w'

In order to check the reliability of our approximation Eqs. (17), (19) and (21), we
recalculate the curve #(w, w') ,~ w ' for hw = 10MeV (Fig. 2) by use of the exact formula Eq.
(16), and compare it with the corresponding curve (the dashed line in Fig. 1) calculated
from the approximate simplified equation (21). Fig. 2 shows a good consistency between
the curves calculated according to Eq. (16) and Eq. (21). The maximum error is less than
15%.
The peak photon energy hw~ in Fig. 1, which corresponds to the maximum annihilation
cross section, can also be obtained from Eq. (21). Let ~d~ __ 0, we get a hyper-equation (22)
which the peak value 8p corresponding to hw~ must satisfy:

1+ 8 1 + 982 - 684
In 1 - ~ -- fl(3 + 282 - 384) . (23)
10 LIU Dang-bo et al. / Chinese Astronomy and Astrophysics 27 (2003) 4-17

200
180
:.-.
160 .: ..
140
tn
Eo 120
100

80
IU
6O
4O
2O

0.01 011 10 100 1000

ho '= (MeV)
Fig. 2 A comparison between the curves of the simplified direction- averaged cross
section (dot line) and the strict direction-averaged cross section (solid line)(hw =
10 MeV)

From Eq.(22), we obtain/~p = 0.701316586. Inserting the solved 3p value into Eq. (19),
we get the peak energy hWp, corresponding to the maximum annihilation cross section O'max:

hw' 1+ ~ -(moc2)
- 2 ~_ 2.936 ~ ~ 3 (m°c2)2
hw (24)
= 1-

The calculated curves in Fig. 1 confirm the correctness of Eq. (23). In fact, Eq. (23) can
be regarded as a match condition which the energies of two interacting photons in isotropic
radiation field must satisfy in order to achieve the maximum annihilation probability, i.e.,
the annihilation reaction will be the easiest to occur only when the product of the energies
of the two photons, tu~ and hw', is approximately equal to ,,- 3(m0c2) 2.

2.3 A b s o r p t i o n Coefficient kT.r(hw )

The absorption coefficient kT.~(hw), a useful macroscopic quantity in the observer's
frame S, can be derived from the simplified direction-averaged formulae Eqs. (19) and (21).
For a high energy ~,-ray photon with given frequency w (or energy/k~), the basic formula to
calculate the absorption coefficient is

k~r.r(w) = N(w')O(w, w') do:', (25)

where

~(9 0Or.) • 21r sin 0d~ ( (moc') 2 )

IV(w') = N(w'). 4re
> - N(w'). f ~ 47r = N(w') 1 -h--~w:--~w
f , (26)
 LIU Dang-bo et al. / Chinese Astronomy and Astrophysics 27 (2003) 4-17 11

where N(w')dw ~represents the number density of photons of ambient isotropic radiation field
in the'frequency range wt - w ~ + dw'. Therefore, N(w ~) is the effective density of annihilated
photons in the interval w ' - w' 4- dw' and in the effective angular range (8c~.,7r), which can
be annihilated with the incident ~,-ray photon with given energy hw. The lower limit of the
integral is given by the threshold condition Eq. (20). In the following discussions we will
focus on some typical ambient radiation fields in astrophysics to complete the calculations
of absorption coefficients k~(hw) .~ hw.
2.3.1 Thermal bremsstrahlung radiation field
The energy density of an ambient bremsstrahlung radiation field is

u(w') dw' -- 4~r I(w') dw' = 47rjbrem'(w')ndw', (27)

c c

where R is the size of field. And

47rjbrem'(w ') ---- 6.8 X IO-3SZ2NeNz x

T ½gH(w,T)e ~ ( e r g . s - l . c m - a . H z -1) (28)
(See 'Radiation Mechanisms in Astrophysics', You Jun-han, 1998, Beijng: Science Press).
In Eq. (26), ~ Z2NeNz ..~ 1.4N 2 for the cosmological abundance. Therefore the number
density of photons in this field is

N(w')dw' = u(w')dW'hw, : 9.52 × I o - 3 s ( R ) \--~'7] (29)

From Eqs. (21), (24) and (27) we get the annihilation absorption coefficient for the
incident high energy monochromatic ~-ray beam with frequency w,

( 1 -~:-~w~]
(moc2)2h w'
,_brem.,
~;'r'r ~w)\ = 4.76 x 10 -as (Trr2~
\ - ~ - - ] RN2T -½ ~-w • x

(1-/~2) [(3-/~4)lnX+---~
1 - / 5 - 2/~(2- ~2)] dw' . (30)

Replacing the frequency w by the photon energy Tg.~, as used in X-ray and "r-ray as-
tronomy, and substituting the integration variable w' in Eq. (28) by/~ by use of Eq. (19),
we get

= 1 ( e
'~ "--" \ ~h ] ~o ~ss \ 1 + f12 ) " (1+.~ x
\1-~)

4/~ [ _/~4)In 1 4-fl 2fl(2-/~2)] dfl (cm -1) (31)

(1 : ~ 2 ) L(3 1 - ,~
Eq. (29) shows the dependence of kb~era"(ha)) on the modulating parameters R, Ne and
T, k~.
b rre m . (hw,R, Ne,T). Taking T = 107,108 and 109 K, we obtain the calculated curves

k brem'(lil'~ R, g e ) .., hod, shown in Fig. 3.

12 L I U Dang-bo et al. / Chinese A s t r o n o m y and Astrophysics g7 (2003) 4 - 1 7

104

.-. 103
eqo
102 °" ,

,.,:"
101
_ _ T=109K
~,~810° ............... T=108K
~ 10"~ ....................... T=I07K

!0-2

1010-1 10o 101 102 1'03 1'04 11)5 106

hco= (MeV)
Fig. 3 The curves of absorption coefficient -~7-r
b~e . . . . ( n w , R , Ne ) ,~ h w in
bremsstrahlung radiation field

2.3.2 Black body radiation field

The energy density of black radiation field is

87rhv 13 dr' Wt30~Jt

u ( v ' ) d r ' -- c3 e hv'/kT - 1
= u(J) dJ. (32)
7r2c3 e h w ' / k T -- 1
Thus the number density of photons is

N(w') dw' u(w') dw' 1 w'2 dw' (33)

= ~t m 7r2C3 e h w , / k T _ 1 "

Inserting Eq. (31) into Eq. (24), and replacing w by photon energy hw, we have

1 ( ,,.o ' f,( i. ,,,-,"J

kbb(~M) = 2 k 7r2C3h3 } k ~ } Jo \l+f12]" / ~(~--e~-~ x

1 -4~
~2 [ ( 3 - - ~ 4 ) l n l _1 -+/~
- ~ - - 2/~(2-/~2)] d~ (cm -1) (34)

bb. (hw, T) is T-dependent. Taking T -- 106, 107 and 108 K, we

Therefore k bb - k.r7
bb.r (hw) .~ hw using Eq. (32), shown in Fig. 4.
calculate the absorption coefficient curves kx.
2.3.3 Power law radiation field
For the non-thermal power law form field, the density of radiation energy is

u(J)dw' = u 0 J - ~ d J , (35)
where a is the spectral index, uo is the energy density coefficient, determined by observation.
The density of photons is
 LIU Dang-bo et al. / Chinese Astronomy and Astrophysics ~7 (2003) 4-17 13

10 6
~ T=I0SK
10 5
............. T=I07K
104 ...................... =

~o 10 3

,~ 10 2

"~ 10 !

10 °

10q

lO{ffl 10o 101 102 103 104 105 106

ha = (MeV)

Fig. 4 The curves of absorption coefficientk~,

bb.(Nz) ~ 5w in black body radiation field

N(w') dw' - u@')

h~.'dw' - ( ~ ) ~'-(~+1) dw' " (36)

We notice that the real spectrum of a power law field is always cut-off at both the high
and low frequency ends. The high frequency cut-off hw'ax weakly affects the calculation of
annihilation absorption because the power law form implies a nominally very small number
of high frequency photons, which can be neglected in the annihilation calculation. However,
the effect of the low frequency cut-off hWmin on the absorption calculation has to be taken
I

into account. If ~ m 'i n < hW~h. K (m°c2)2

hW (see Eq. (20), the threshold condition), the
annihilation absorption in the power law field is

k..y (r~o)
pow. _~
1 Trro
2 ( _ffu0=_g) ( (moc2)2 ~ - ~ f l ( 2/~2_ ,~ (1+/~2,~-(~+1)
\ ~ ] 1o \1+~2]'\1----2-~] ×
4~ [ (3-/~4)1n1_/~
1--~2 1+~_2~(2_/~2)] d~ (am-l). (37)

If N.dmi. > (m°c2)2

n• ' then

~ (~)
kpow. ~Trr 0 ~.. " ~~ \,] mln \ l + f l 2] \l__f12 ] X

1 -4~~2 [ (3 - ~4)In -----~

l1+ f l -
2/~(2-~2)] d/~ (cm-1), (38)
14 LIU Dang-bo et al. / Chinese Astronomy and Astrophysics 27 (2008) 4-17

/no~.n~:i_(,noc2)2
-

where the lower limit of integral / ~ m i n ---- V ~ o J . ~ O d t m i n _ ~ . ( m 0 c 2 ) 2 ° The parameters in calculation,

?uz~nin, a and u0, are taken from observation. In our model calculations, we take a typical
I
value of spectral index a = 0.7. For ?UZmi n = 0.1, 0.5 and 1 keV, i.e., 10 -4, 5 x 10 -4 and
10 -3 MeV, we obtain, for the annihilation absorption coefficients in a power law form field,
pow.
the calculated curves k77 (hw, u0) ,-, fiw shown in Fig. 5.

10 4

- - hto'min =l.OxlO"4MeV
............ h tO,min =5.0x10"4 M e V
103

"7
10 2

~ lO I

e 10o

I0-1
10-~ 100 101 102 103 104 105
ho = (MeV)

Fig. 5 The curves of absorption coefficient t¢p°w' (hw, uo) ,',, hto in power law radiation field

3. C O N C L U S I O N AND DISCUSSION

3.1 In this paper, we derive the m a t c h condition Eq. (23) which is an i m p o r t a n t complement
to the threshold condition Eq. (20). People often misunderstand the threshold condition
Eq. (20) before we derive the match condition. Prom Eq. (20), it seems that the higher the
energies fizz and hw' of the two photons, the easier the 3' - 7 annihilation will be: in short,
collision of higher energy photons is more favorable to 7 - 7 annihilation. However, Eq. (5)
and Eq. (18) show that the annihilation cross section decreases drastically with increase
in the energies hw, hw ~ of the interacting photons because a oc F -2, where F = mno-~c =
+ Combining Eqs. (5) and (20), we see that there are two cases which favor
annihilation. The first case is when bzv >> moc ~ >> hw ~. For example, when the high energy
photon hw passes through a low frequency radiation field, which very much favors the 7 - 3'
annihilation reaction only if the threshold condition Eq. (20) is satisfied. On the contrary,
if both photons have very high energies, hco >> mo c2 and hw ~ >> mo c2, the annihilation
probability turns out to be very small, despite the threshold condition (20) having been
fully satisfied. The second case which favors annihilation is when both hw and hw t are
only slightly greater t h a n m o c 2, i.e., hw >moc 2, hw' >moc 2. We mention t h a t both these
cases are merely particular instances of the match condition Eq. (23), which shows that
 LIU Dang-bo et al. / Chinese Astronomy and Astrophysics 27 (2003) 4-17 15

the annihilation cross section achieves maximum when the product of hw and hw' nearly
equals ~ 3(m0c2) 2, and this is consistent with the calculated curves in Fig. 1. Eq. (23)
could be very helpful for semi-quantitative discussions on some "r-ray sources. From Fig.
1 we see that the maximum cross section at hw' ,.~ 3(rn°c2)2
a~ is about ~ 1.7 x 10-25cm 2,
which is comparable to the Thomson scattering cross section, 6.65 x 10-25cm2. Therefore
in "r-ray astronomy, the process of "y - 7 annihilation is really comparable to the Compton
scattering process. The marked annihilation of 7-ray photons obviously indicates that the
7 - "Yprocess is one of the most important absorption mechanisms.

3.2 Another significant result of this paper is shown in the curves of Fig. 1, calculated by
use of Eq. (21) and Eq. (19). From Fig. 1 we see an interesting property of the spectral
behavior of the annihilation cross section: the higher the energy hw of incident photon, the
narrower the effective frequency range 5w' corresponding to a ~ 0. In other words, the
higher the energy hw of the incident photon, the smaller the number of eligible photons in
an ambient field which can be annihilated with the incident photon. Thus we conclude that,
in the ~ - 7 annihilation process, the ambient radiation field is markedly transparent for
extremely high-energy 7-ray photons, so the annihilation absorption is negligibly weak. This
conclusion is also very useful in some qualitative analysis of absorption in 7-ray astronomy.

3.3 The match condition and the special spectral behavior of annihilation cross section
shown above help us to understand the characteristics of 7 - 7 absorption. In this paper,
we calculate the curves of annihilation absorption coefficients for three different ambient
radiation fields that are typical in astrophysics. In the following we give some explanations
and discussions on the different properties of the calculated absorption curves in the three
cases, based on the match condition and the spectral property of annihilation cross section.
3.3.1 For the black body radiation field, the peak position in the absorption coefficient curves
shown in Fig. 4 can be evaluated by the match condition Eq. (23). The main radiation
band of the black body field is concentrated in a narrow spectral region around the average
frequency --7w ~ 5.01 x 1011T. According to the match condition, the peak position hwp of the
energy (or frequency wv) of the incident photon, corresponding to the maximum annihilation
absorption, should be given by (hWp). (hw -7) ,,, 3(m0c2) 2, which approximately gives the peak
position shown in Fig. 4. The rapid decrease of absorption coefficient kx~ bb. (hw) on both sides
of the peak position can also be explained by Eq. (23) because of the rapid drop of radiation
at both the high and low energy edges of the black body spectrum.
3.3.2 For the non-thermal field with power law form spectrum, the energies of most of
the photons are near the averaged photon energy hw' ,,, 1.6hW'min. According to Eq.
(23), the peak position hWp, corresponding to absorption maximum is estimated at ,~
3(moc2)2/1.6hW'min, and this is also consistent with the calculated curves in Fig. 5. From
Fig. 5 we see that, when the energy hw of the incident photon is small, i.e. hw << hwp, the
absorption coefficient kpow.(hw) increases with increasing photon energy hw in the power
law form. This is due to the fact that the small energy hw of incident photons corresponds
to a large threshold of annihilation hW~h' ,~ (moc2)2/hw, which makes the low frequency
cut-off ~ d mI i n < ~ d t h! " . In this case, we have to adopt Eq. (35) to calculate the absorption
coefficient, and thus obtain k.r. pow.
r (hw) c< (hw) a. As for the large incident energy hw, we
i ~> (moc2)2/hw. Therefore we use Eq. (36). In this case, all the photons in the
have ~Jmin
16 LIU Dang-bo et al. / Chinese Astronomy and Astrophysics 27 (2003) 4-17

ambient field are able to take part in the annihilation with the incident photon with energy
hw. However, Eq. (5) shows a rapid decrease in the annihilation cross section with increas-
ing energy of the incident photon. Therefore we expect a drastic decrease of absorption
pOW, (hw) with increasing hw, despite the fact that all the photons in the power law field
kP~
contribute to the annihilation reaction.
3.3.3 Finally we discuss the bremsstrahlung field. From Fig. 3 we see that the main property
of the absorption curves here is the slow decrease with increasing incident photon energy hw,
after achieving the maximum of absorption. The flattening of the absorption curves is due
to the flat spectrum of the bremsstrahlung radiation field as well as the spectral behavior of
the annihilation cross section (Fig. 1). The flat spectrum implies that the number of lower
frequency photons is much larger than that of higher frequency photons. According to the
match condition, the incident photon with higher energy hw can be annihilated with the more
abundant, lower energy photons, which obviously increases the possibility of annihilation of
incident photons with higher energies. On the other hand, Fig. i shows that, for an incident
photon with higher energy hw, the corresponding low energy photons in ambient field which
can be annihilated with it are concentrated in a much narrower frequency band (note that
the frequency axis in Fig. 1 is in logarithmic scale). Combining the two contrary effects, we
expect that the absorption in the bremsstrahlung field is almost unchanged with increasing
incident energy hw, as is shown in Fig. 3.
3.4 Our calculated annihilation absorption curves may be useful in explaining some of the
observational facts in ~/-ray astronomy. The remarkable absorption peak shown in Figs. 4
and 5 implies that there is a corresponding absorption dip somewhere in the ~/-ray spectrum
of some "y-ray sources (e.g. De Jager & Stecker 2001; Stecker & Salamon 2001). Another
example is the X-ray binary Cyg X-3, where both the ~'-ray and the X-ray radiations exist;
and there is a negative correlation between the two, i.e., the ~,-ray emission is weak when Cyg
X-3 is in the 'high state' with relatively strong X- ray emission, and vice versa (Wu, Zhang
& Li 1993). Such a phenomenon could be explained by use of the two-photon annihilation
effect when the high energy ~/-ray photons from the central part of Cyg X-3 pass through
the outward extended X-ray radiation field around Cyg X-3. A detailed model consideration
and calculation will be given in another paper.
 LIU Dang-bo et al. / Chinese Astronomy and Astrophysics 27 (2003) 4-17 17

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