Related papers: Strong-Field QED and High Power Lasers
We give a non-technical overview of QED effects arising in the presence of ultra-strong electromagnetic fields highlighting the new prospects provided by a realisation of the ELI laser facility.
This article presents: 1) The theoretical background of strong field physics and vacuum structure and stability; 2) The instrumental developments in the area of pulse lasers and considers the physics case for ultra intense laser facilities;…
We give a brief overview of the most important QED effects that can be studied in the presence of extreme fields such as those expected at the Vulcan laser upgraded to a power of 10 Petawatts.
When photons propagate in vacuum they may fluctuate into matter pairs thus allowing the vacuum to be polarised. This linear effect leads to charge screening and renormalisation. When exposed to an intense background field a nonlinear effect…
Upcoming high-intensity laser systems will be able to probe the quantum-induced nonlinear regime of electrodynamics. So far unobserved QED phenomena such as the discovery of a nonlinear response of the quantum vacuum to macroscopic…
High-energy spin-polarized electron, positron, and $\gamma$-photon beams have many significant applications in the study of material properties, nuclear structure, particle physics, and high-energy astrophysics. Thus,efficient production of…
These notes provide a pedagogical introduction to the theoretical study of vacuum polarization effects in strong electromagnetic fields as provided by state-of-the-art high-intensity lasers. Quantum vacuum fluctuations give rise to…
This is a write-up of a short tutorial talk on high-intensity QED, video-presented at the 2021 annual Christmas meeting of the Central Laser Facility at Rutherford-Appleton Lab, UK. The first half consists of a largely historical…
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…
The construction of low-energy effective actions in QED for several types of external conditions is reviewed. Emphasis is put on the application of these effective actions to a variety of physical effects which represent a manifestation of…
Upcoming and planned experiments combining increasingly intense lasers and energetic particle beams will access new regimes of nonlinear, relativistic, quantum effects. This improved experimental capability has driven substantial progress…
The emission from an electron in the field of a relativistically strong laser pulse is analyzed. At pulse intensities of J > 2 10^22 W/cm2 the emission from counter-propagating electrons is modified by the effects of Quantum ElectroDynamics…
Since the work of Sauter, and Heisenberg, Euler and K\"ockel, it has been understood that vacuum polarization effects in quantum electrodynamics (QED) predict remarkable new phenomena such as light-light scattering and pair production from…
A survey of physical parameters and of a ladder of various regimes of laser-matter interactions at extreme intensities is given. Special emphases is made on three selected topics: (i) qualitative derivation of the scalings for probability…
We suggest an experiment to observe vacuum birefringence induced by intense laser fields. A high-intensity laser pulse is focused to ultra-relativistic intensity and polarizes the vacuum which then acts like a birefringent medium. The…
Strong QED has attracted attention recently partly because many astrophysical phenomena have been observed to involve electromagnetic fields beyond the critical strength for electron-positron pair production and partly because terrestrial…
High intense electromagnetic fields can be unique probes to study natures of macroscopic vacua by themselves. Combining accelerators with the intense field can provide more fruitful probes which can neither be achieved by only intense…
The emission from an electron in the field of a relativistically strong laser pulse is analyzed. At the pulse intensities of \ge 10^{22} W/cm^2 the emission from counter-propagating electrons is modified by the effects of Quantum…
QED cascades are complex avalanche processes of hard photon emission and electron-positron pair creation driven by ultra-strong electromagnetic fields. They play a fundamental role in astrophysical environments such as a pulsars'…
New laser facilities will reach intensities of $10^{23} \textrm{W cm}^{-2}$. This advance enables novel experimental setups in the study of laser-plasma interaction. In these setups with extreme fields quantum electrodynamic (QED) effects…