Fundamental constants from photon-photon scattering in three-beam collisions
Abstract
Direct measurement of the elastic scattering of real photons on an electromagnetic field would allow the fundamental low-energy constants of quantum electrodynamics (QED) to be experimentally determined. We show that scenarios involving the collision of three laser beams have several advantages over conventional two-beam scenarios. The kinematics of a three-beam collision allows for a higher signal-to-noise ratio in the detection region, without the need for polarimetry and separates out contributions from different orders of photon scattering. A planar configuration of colliding a photon beam from an x-ray free electron laser with two optical beams is studied in detail. We show that measurements of elastic photon scattering and vacuum birefringence are possible with currently available technology.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2406.10342,
title = {Fundamental constants from photon-photon scattering in three-beam collisions},
author = {Alexander J. Macleod and Ben King},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2406.10342},
year = {2024}
}
Comments
18 pages, 16 figures. Matches version published in Phys. Rev. A