Related papers: A proposal for testing subcritical vacuum pair pro…
Optical signatures of the effective nonlinear couplings among electromagnetic fields in the quantum vacuum can be conveniently described in terms of stimulated photon emission processes induced by strong classical, space-time dependent…
The advent of Petawatt-class laser systems allows generating electro-magnetic fields of unprecedented strength in a controlled environment, driving increasingly more efforts to probe yet unobserved processes through their interaction with…
This paper reviews the field of gamma-ray astronomy and describes future experiments and prospects for advances in fundamental physics and high-energy astrophysics through gamma-ray measurements. We concentrate on recent progress in the…
We study the spectra of gamma ray signals that arise from dark matter annihilation in the universe. We focus on the large class of theories where the photon spectrum includes both continuum spectrum of gamma rays that arise from…
We investigate strong field vacuum effects using a phase space approach based on the Wigner formalism. We calculate the Wigner function in a strong null-field background exactly, using lightfront field theory. The Wigner function exhibits…
Prolific electron-positron pair production is possible at laser intensities approaching 10^{24} W/cm^2 at a wavelength of 1 micron. An analysis of electron trajectories and interactions at the nodes (B=0) of two counter-propagating,…
Modern laser systems are able to generate short and intense laser pulses ionizing matter in the poorly explored barrier-suppression regime. Field ionization in this regime is studied analytically and numerically. For analytical studies,…
Very high energy (VHE) gamma-rays have been detected from the direction of the Galactic center. The H.E.S.S. Cherenkov telescopes have located this gamma-ray source with a preliminary position uncertainty of 8.5" per axis (6" statistic + 6"…
Data from LEP2 on hadron production in gamma gamma interactions at high pT exceed the predictions of QCD by about an order of magnitude. The amplitude for the process is asymptotically proportional to the sum of the squares of the charges…
We put forward a concrete experimental setup allowing to measure light-by-light scattering in the collision of two optical high-intensity laser beams at state-of-the-art high-field facilities operating petawatt class laser systems. Our…
The possibility to observe vacuum electron-positron pair creation due to a powerful optical laser pulse is discussed. We employ a quantum kinetic formulation of the problem with a source term describing the vacuum pair production in a…
We present a short review of recent progress in studying QED effects of interaction of ultra-relativistic laser pulses with vacuum and $e^-e^+$ plasma. The development of laser technologies promises very rapid growth of laser intensities in…
The topic of Lorentz invariance violation is a fundamental question in physics that has taken on particular interest in theoretical explorations of quantum gravity scenarios. I discuss various gamma-ray observations that give limits on…
Gedanken experiments are used to explore properties of quantum vacuum energy that are currently challenging to explore experimentally. A constant lateral Casimir force is predicted to exist between two overlapping finite parallel plates at…
It is suggested that Schwinger's (1951) vacuum persistence probability against pair production by an intense but constant electric field is a very good approximation to the corresponding quantity if the field does not vary appreciably over…
The production of electron-positron pairs from vacuum by counterpropagating laser beams of linear polarization is calculated. In contrast to the usual approximate approach, the spatial dependence and magnetic component of the laser field…
We discuss the visibility of gamma lines from dark matter annihilation. We point out a class of theories for dark matter which predict the existence of gamma lines with striking features. In these theories, the final state radiation…
Electron-positron pair creation in a standing wave is explored using a parameter-free quantum kinetic equation. Field strengths and frequencies corresponding to modern optical lasers induce a material polarisation of the QED vacuum, which…
In this study we explore the possibility of using the process of electron-positron pair creation in strong laser fields as a tool for measuring the intensity of the corresponding laser radiation. In the initial state we consider either free…
The present design of the new space observatory GAMMA-400 is presented in this paper. The instrument has been designed for the optimal detection of gamma rays in a broad energy range (from ~100 MeV up to 3 TeV), with excellent angular and…