Hannover 2013 – scientific programme
Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help
Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 43: Poster II
Q 43.49: Poster
Wednesday, March 20, 2013, 16:00–18:30, Empore Lichthof
Numerical treatment of non-linear effects on light propagation arising from vacuum polarisation — •Patrick Böhl, Ben King, and Hartmut Ruhl — Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Theresienstr. 37, 80333 München
The upcoming availability of high-intensity laser facilities such as ELI [1]
and XCELS [2], offer the possibility to test the predictions of QED in the non-linear
regime. One such prominent prediction is the interaction of
light with the polarised vacuum, which can be described
by the so-called ”Euler-Heisenberg“ effective field theory.
The resulting corrections to the classical Maxwell theory can be expanded
in E/Ecr where Ecr≈ 1016
V/cm is the critical field strength. We solve
numerically, for the first time, the resulting implicit, non-linear equations of
motion to lowest order in E/Ecr. The results describe
light propagation at very high intensities and potentially hint at an ultimate limit of laser beam focussing due to the refractive interaction with the quantum vacuum.
[1] http://www.extreme-light-infrastructure.eu, Extreme Light Infrastructure (2012)
http://www.xcels.iapras.ru, eXawatt Center for Extreme Light Studies (2012)