Magnetic mirror cavities as terahertz radiation sources and a means of quantifying radiation friction

Abstract

We propose a radiation source based on a magnetic mirror cavity. Relativistic electrons are simulated entering the cavity and their trajectories and resulting emission spectra are calculated. The uniformity of the particle orbits is found to result in a frequency comb in terahertz range, the precise energies of which are tunable by varying the electron's γ-factor. For very high energy particles, radiation friction causes the spectral harmonics to broaden and we suggest this as a possible way to verify competing classical equations of motion