Hannover 2016 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 58: Poster: Quantum Optics and Photonics IV

Q 58.13: Poster

Thursday, March 3, 2016, 16:30–19:00, Empore Lichthof

Light-light interaction in strong plane-wave laser fields — Sebastian Meuren, •Sergey Bragin, Rashid Shaisultanov, Christoph H. Keitel, and Antonino Di Piazza — Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, D-69117 Heidelberg

While according to classical electrodynamics the superposition principle holds in vacuum, in quantum field theory light interacts with a background electromagnetic field via virtual charged particles. If the field is effectively of the order of the critical field of QED, also the transformation of a photon into a real electron-positron pair becomes sizable (nonlinear Breit-Wheeler process). These light-light interaction effects could be measurable at upcoming laser facilities like Vulcan 10P, ELI and XCELS [1]. Here, we present the momentum distribution of Breit-Wheeler electron-positron pairs in detail and introduce an intuitive semiclassical model which explains all qualitative features of the corresponding spectrum [2]. Also, we study the exact photon propagator inside a plane-wave laser field [3]. Due to light-light interaction the propagation of a photon through the background field is modified in a nontrivial way. By solving the Dyson-Schwinger equations we obtain a compact expression valid to one-loop order and discuss possible applications of our finding.

[1] A. Di Piazza et al., Rev. Mod. Phys. 84, 1177–1228 (2012)
S. Meuren, C. H. Keitel, and A. Di Piazza, arXiv:1503.03271 (2015)
S. Bragin et al., in preparation.