Berlin 2014 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 56: Quantum effects: QED II

Q 56.6: Talk

Friday, March 21, 2014, 11:45–12:00, DO26 208

Polarization operator for plane-wave laser fields — •Sebastian Meuren, Karen Z. Hatsagortsyan, Christoph H. Keitel, and Antonino Di Piazza — Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, D-69117 Heidelberg

By combining modern petawatt laser systems with highly energetic particle or photon beams, the non-linear regime of QED becomes experimentally accessible with presently available technology [1]. In particular, non-linear vacuum polarization effects could be investigated. For an incoming photon they are described theoretically by the polarization operator, which was – for a plane-wave background field – first calculated in [2] using an operator formalism. In [3] we have shown how this result can be obtained by using the Volkov propagator and by directly evaluating the appearing space-time integrals. Starting from this analytical expression, we have now calculated the remaining integrals numerically [4]. In particular, we have considered pair creation inside strong laser fields based on the polarization operator.
[1] A. Di Piazza, et al., Rev. Mod. Phys. 84, 1177–1228 (2012)
V. N. Baier et al., Sov. Phys. JETP 42, 961 (1975)
S. Meuren, C. H. Keitel and A. Di Piazza,
[2] Phys. Rev. D 88, 013007 (2013)
S. Meuren, K. Z. Hatsagortsyan, C. H. Keitel and A. Di Piazza,
[2] in preparation.