English

Degenerate behavior in nonlinear vacuum electrodynamics

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2020-06-24 v1 High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

We study nonlinear vacuum electrodynamics in the first-order formulation proposed by Pleba\'nski. We analyze in detail the equations of motion, and identify conditions for which a singularity can occur for the time derivative of one of the field components. The resulting degenerate behavior can give rise to a shock wave with a reduction of the local number of degrees of freedom. We use an example model to illustrate the occurrence of superluminal propagation for field values approaching the singularity.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2004.01852,
  title  = {Degenerate behavior in nonlinear vacuum electrodynamics},
  author = {C. A. Escobar and R. Potting},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2004.01852},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

17 pages, 2 figures, Accepted for publication in Physica Scripta

R2 v1 2026-06-23T14:39:04.783Z