Spectral distribution and Coulomb correction for nuclear bremsstrahlung induced by heavy targets

Abstract Bremsstrahlung spectra below 250 MeV have been measured colliding 500 MeV–electrons with Cu, Ag, and Au targets. The experimental intensity ratios relative to Cu are well described by an accurate analytical high-energy theory, which accounts both for Coulomb distortion and screening. This represents the first experimental verification of the discovery by Bethe-Maximon that leading-order quantum mechanical calculations, equivalent to quasiclassical approximations, become exact at high energies and small angles. It also shows that radiative QED effects play a minor role in the covered part of the spectral distribution within the accuracy (1.6%) of the present measurements.