LASER IRRADIATED ENHANCEMENT OF THE ATOMIC ELECTRON CAPTURE RATE IN SEARCH OF NEW PHYSICS

Electron capture processes are important for new physics searches and therefore a high capture rate is inevitably desired. We investigate a possibility of enhancement of an atomic electron capture rate by irradiating laser beam to "an atom". The possibility of the enhancement is shown as a consequence of an enhanced electron wave function at origin Ψ(0) through an effectively increased mass of the electron. We find that order of magnitude enhancement can be achieved using the laser with intensity 1010 W/mm2, and energy of photon, of [Formula: see text].