Frankfurt 2006 – scientific programme
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Q: Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 10: Quanteneffekte I
Q 10.6: Talk
Monday, March 13, 2006, 15:15–15:30, HII
Nonlinear vacuum effects in strong laser fields — •Antonino Di Piazza, Karen Z. Hatsagortsyan, and Christoph H. Keitel — Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, D-69117 Heidelberg
Quantum electrodynamics predicts that the vacuum in the presence of strong electromagnetic fields behaves in general as a nonlinear birefringent dielectric medium. We investigate the feasibility that by using strong laser fields, some nonlinear vacuum effects are observed experimentally. In particular, we show that by making three terawatt optical laser beams to collide in vacuum, then photons are expected to be scattered in the collision (assisted photon-photon scattering). Also, we propose a possible experimental setup to measure the vacuum refractive indices in the presence of a strong standing wave generated by two equal counterpropagating optical laser beams with intensity of the order of 1023 W/cm2.