Experimental investigation of high-energy photon splitting in atomic fields

Phys.Rev.Lett. 89 (2002) 061802 The new data analysis of the experiment, where the photon splitting in the atomic fields has been observed for the first time, is presented. This experiment was performed at the tagged photon beam of the ROKK-1M facility at the VEPP-4M collider. In the energy region of 120-450 MeV, the statistics of $1.6\cdot 10^9$ photons incident on the BGO target was collected. About 400 candidates to the photon splitting events were reconstructed. Within the attained experimental accuracy, the experimental results are consistent with the cross section calculated exactly in an atomic field. The predictions obtained in the Born approximation significantly differ from the experimental results.