Multiphoton generation of optical sidebands to nuclear transitions

Recent calculations have shown that multiphoton transitions in a nucleus that involve a γ-ray photon could be induced by intense fields of optical radiation. The effect of such transitions was predicted to be a shift of the γ-ray energy by the addition or subtraction of the energy of the optical photon. A literature search has shown that such optical sidebands have been observed in certain instances on the ⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer line at 14 keV and not satisfactorily explained by conventional models. This work reports the formulation and evaluation of the multiphoton model for the values of experimental variables appropriate to those experiments. Using no fitted parameters, remarkable agreement was obtained between the predictions of the multiphoton theory and the previously reported results.

NUCLEAR REACTIONS Calculated B for multiphoton absorption; γ plus radio-frequency photons.