Electromagnetic wave collapse in a radiation background
Astrophysics
2009-11-07 v2 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Physics - Theory
Abstract
The nonlinear interaction, due to quantum electrodynamical (QED) effects, between an electromagnetic pulse and a radiation background is investigated, by combining the methods of radiation hydrodynamics with the QED theory for photon-photon scattering. For the case of a single coherent electromagnetic pulse we obtain a Zakharov-like system, where the radiation pressure of the pulse acts as a driver of acoustic waves in the photon gas. For a sufficiently intense pulse and/or background energy density there is focusing and subsequent collapse of the pulse. The relevance of our results for various astrophysical applications are discussed.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0305269,
title = {Electromagnetic wave collapse in a radiation background},
author = {Mattias Marklund and Gert Brodin and Lennart Stenflo},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0305269},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
4 pages