Dynamical Schwinger effect and high-intensity lasers. Realising nonperturbative QED

Abstract

We consider the possibility of experimental verification of vacuum e + e − pair creation at the focus of two counter-propagating optical laser beams with intensities 10 20 -10 22 W/cm 2 , achievable with presentday petawatt lasers, and approaching the Schwinger limit: 10 29 W/cm 2 to be reached at ELI. Our approach is based on the collisionless kinetic equation for the evolution of the e + and e − distribution functions governed by a non-Markovian source term for pair production. As possible experimental signals of vacuum pair production we consider e + e − annihilation into γ-pairs and the refraction of a high-frequency probe laser beam by the produced e + e − plasma. We discuss the dependence of the dynamical pair production process on laser wavelength, with special emphasis on applications in the X-ray domain (X-FEL), as well as the prospects for µ + µ − and π + π − pair creation at high-intensity lasers. We investigate perspectives for using high-intensity lasers as "boosters" of ion beams in the few-GeV per nucleon range, which is relevant, e.g., to the exploration of the QCD phase transition in laboratory experiments. Send offprint requests to: David Blaschke 1 We use = c = kB = 1 throughout. PACS

Assisted dynamical Schwinger effect: pair production in a pulsed bifrequent field

“…which makes it inaccessible to direct experimental observations at present. The hope for the observation of such processes was revived with the advent of ultra-intensity laser systems in the optical or X-ray regimes [4]. The rapidly evolving laser technologies [5] triggered repeatedly the theoretical search for suitable laser configurations which have the potential to realize pair production by Schwinger-type tunneling processes (for different variants, see [6,7]).…”

Self-interactions as predicted by the Dirac-Maxwell equations

“…This agreement permits us now to estimate the impact of this effect, which is unavoidable unless the photon field is second quantized or the source terms in the Maxwell equations are not chosen ab initio but modified phenomenologically, such as done for example in the Vlasov equation [4][5][6][7].…”

“…While the creation dynamics of electron-positron pairs in supercritical electromagnetic fields in the quantum vacuum has been widely studied [1][2][3], only recently has the contribution of the mutual electron-positron attraction been investigated [4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. A fundamentally accurate and space-time resolved theory that would involve the force-intermediating photons as dynamically coupled quantum particles is presently out of the question for computational and also conceptual reasons.…”

Kinetics of Photon Radiation off an e–e+‐Plasma Created from the Vacuum in a Strong Laser Field

“…Different proposals have been made for observing the quasiparticle EPP generated in the focal spot of counter propagating laser beams (see, e.g., Refs. [6,7] and literature cited therein).…”