A study of low Q/sup 2/ radiative Bhabha scattering

This thesis presents a study of electron-positron scattering, via nearly real photon exchange, where in the process one or more high energy photons are produced. The motivations behind the work are twofold. Firstly, the study is a sensitive test of the theory of electron-photon interactions, quantum electrodynamics. A deviation from the theory could indicate that the electron is a composite particle. Secondly, a thorough understanding of this process is necessary for experiments to be done in the near future at the Stanford Linear Collider and the LEP facility at CERN. Calculations for the process to third and fourth order in pertubation theory are described. Methods for simulating the process by a Monte Carlo event generator are given. Results from the calculations are compared to data from the Mark II experiment at the PEP storage ring. The ratio of measured to calculated cross sections are 0.993 /+-/ 0.017 /+-/ 0.015 and 0.99 /+-/ 0.16 /+-/ 0.08 for final states with one and two observed photons respectively, where the first errors are statistical and the second systematic. The excellent agreement verifies the calculations of the fourth order radiative correction. No evidence for electron substructure is observed