SPIN CORRELATIONS OF THE FINAL LEPTONS IN THE TWO-PHOTON PROCESSES γγ → e+e-, μ+μ-, τ+τ-
The spin structure of the process γγ → e+e- is theoretically investigated. It is shown that, if the primary photons are unpolarized, the final electron and positron are unpolarized as well but their spins are strongly correlated. For the final (e+e-) system, explicit expressions for the components of the correlation tensor are derived, and the relative fractions of singlet and triplet states are found. It is demonstrated that in the process γγ → e+e- one of the Bell-type incoherence inequalities for the correlation tensor components is always violated and, thus, spin correlations of the electron and positron in this process have the strongly pronounced quantum character. Analogous consideration can be wholly applied as well to the two-photon processes γγ → μ+μ- and γγ → τ+τ-, which become possible at considerably higher energies.