Radiation of de-excited electrons at large times in a strong electromagnetic plane wave

•Late time asymptotics of the solutions to the Lorentz–Dirac equation are studied.•General properties of the total radiation power of electrons are established.•The total radiation power equals a half the rest energy divided by the proper-time.•Spectral densities of radiation formed on the late time asymptotics are derived.•Possible experimental verification of the results is proposed.

The late time asymptotics of the physical solutions to the Lorentz–Dirac equation in the electromagnetic external fields of simple configurations–the constant homogeneous field, the linearly polarized plane wave (in particular, the constant uniform crossed field), and the circularly polarized plane wave–are found. The solutions to the Landau–Lifshitz equation for the external electromagnetic fields admitting a two-parametric symmetry group, which include as a particular case the above mentioned field configurations, are obtained. Some general properties of the total radiation power of a charged particle are established. In particular, for a circularly polarized wave and constant uniform crossed fields, the total radiation power in the asymptotic regime is independent of the charge and the external field strength, when expressed in terms of the proper-time, and equals a half the rest energy of a charged particle divided by its proper-time. The spectral densities of the radiation power formed on the late time asymptotics are derived for a charged particle moving in the external electromagnetic fields of the simple configurations pointed above. This provides a simple method to verify experimentally that the charged particle has reached the asymptotic regime.