Electromagnetic fields in a thermal background

Elmfors, Per; Skagerstam, Bo-Sture

doi:10.1016/0370-2693(95)00124-4

Cited by 56 publications

(90 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…5, we calculate the thermal contribution to Schwinger's famous pair-production formula [16] for constant electric background fields in the low-temperature limit. Here, a thermal one-loop contribution surprisingly does not exist [7,9], since the thermal one-loop effective action is purely real by construction. Hence, the findings of Sec.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

QED effective action at finite temperature: Two-loop dominance

Gies

2000

Phys. Rev. D

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We calculate the two-loop effective action of QED for arbitrary constant electromagnetic fields at finite temperature T in the limit of T much smaller than the electron mass. It is shown that in this regime the two-loop contribution always exceeds the influence of the one-loop part due to the thermal excitation of the internal photon. As an application, we study light propagation and photon splitting in the presence of a magnetic background field at low temperature. We furthermore discover a thermally induced contribution to pair production in electric fields.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

QED effective action at finite temperature: Two-loop dominance

Gies

2000

Phys. Rev. D

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“…͑11͒ is allowed if the frequency is also much smaller than k B T with k B the Boltzmann constant and N 1/3 . 42 Also, in the presence of particle backgrounds the Euler-Heisenberg effective Lagrangian density ͑11͒ has to be corrected by adding the so-called effective Lagrangian density at finite temperature and chemical potential. 8,43,44 It turns out that the finite-temperature twoloop contribution to the effective Lagrangian density is dominant with respect to the one-loop contribution at temperatures such that k B T Ӷ m e .…”

Section: Theoretical Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhancement of vacuum polarization effects in a plasma

2007

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The dispersive effects of vacuum polarization on the propagation of a strong circularly polarized electromagnetic wave through a cold collisional plasma are studied analytically. It is found that, due to the singular dielectric features of the plasma, the vacuum effects on the wave propagation in a plasma are qualitatively different and much larger than those in pure vacuum in the regime when the frequency of the propagating wave approaches the plasma frequency. A possible experimental setup to detect these effects in plasma is described.Comment: 33 pages, 3 figure

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“…Thermal effects generalize the classical results of Schwinger in the weak field limit (Heisenberg and Euler, 1936;Schwinger, 1951;Weisskopf, 1936). It was pioneered by Dittrich (1979) who investigated the thermal effects in combination with an external magnetic field, and later a comprehensive study using the real time formalism in the case of an general electromagnetic field background was performed by Elmfors and Skagerstam (1995) (see also Gies (1999a)). The dispersion relation, including dispersive effects, was discussed by Gies (1999b), and it was later shown that in a ther-1 Casimir considered particle-particle and particle-plate (Casimir and Polder, 1948), and plate-plate systems (Casimir, 1948), since the problem stemmed from research on colloidal solutions, but is most clearly represented by the parallel plate example.…”

Section: Effective Field Theory Of Photon-photon Scatteringmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nonlinear collective effects in photon-photon and photon-plasma interactions

2006

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We consider strong-field effects in laboratory and astrophysical plasmas and high intensity laser and cavity systems, related to quantum electrodynamical (QED) photon-photon scattering. Current state-of-the-art laser facilities are close to reaching energy scales at which laboratory astrophysics will become possible. In such high energy density laboratory astrophysical systems, quantum electrodynamics will play a crucial role in the dynamics of plasmas and indeed the vacuum itself. Developments such as the free electron laser may also give a means for exploring remote violent events such as supernovae in a laboratory environment. At the same time, superconducting cavities have steadily increased their quality factors, and quantum non-demolition measurements are capable of retrieving information from systems consisting of a few photons. Thus, not only will QED effects such as elastic photon-photon scattering be important in laboratory experiments, it may also be directly measurable in cavity experiments. Here we describe the implications of collective interactions between photons and photonplasma systems. We give an overview of strong field vacuum effects, as formulated through the Heisenberg-Euler Lagrangian. Based on the dispersion relation for a single test photon travelling in a slowly varying background electromagnetic field, a set of equations describing the nonlinear propagation of an electromagnetic pulse on a radiation-plasma is derived. The stability of the governing equations is discussed, and it is shown using numerical methods that electromagnetic pulses may collapse and split into pulse trains, as well as be trapped in a relativistic electron hole. Effects, such as the generation of novel electromagnetic modes, introduced by QED in pair plasmas is described. Applications to laser-plasma systems and astrophysical environments are discussed.

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Electromagnetic fields in a thermal background

Cited by 56 publications

References 20 publications

QED effective action at finite temperature: Two-loop dominance

QED effective action at finite temperature: Two-loop dominance

Enhancement of vacuum polarization effects in a plasma

Nonlinear collective effects in photon-photon and photon-plasma interactions

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