Related papers: Probing vacuum birefringence using x-ray free elec…
By combining an adiabatic approach based on a `locally monochromatic' approximation with a local Hilbert transform, it is demonstrated how vacuum birefringence in the strong field regime can be calculated using a rate approach suitable for…
The effect of vacuum birefringence in a magnetic field generated by a laser-driven capacitor-coil generator as well as in field of an electromagnetic wave in a radioguide has been theoretically considered. The resulting ellipticity of a…
The quantum electrodynamical vacuum polarization effects arising in the collision of a high-energy proton beam and a strong, linearly polarized laser field are investigated. The probability that laser photons merge into one photon by…
The nonlinear quantum interaction of a linearly polarized x-ray probe beam with a focused intense standing laser wave is studied theoretically. Because of the tight focusing of the standing laser pulse, diffraction effects arise for the…
Quantum field theory predicts the vacuum to exhibit a non-linear response to strong electromagnetic fields. This fundamental tenet has remained experimentally challenging and is yet to be tested in the laboratory. We present proof of…
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…
Motivated by experimental initiatives such as the Helmholtz International Beamline for Extreme Fields (HIBEF), we study Compton scattering of x-rays at electrons in a strong external field (e.g., a strong optical laser) with special…
A ring-laser experiment, similar to the Canterbury ring laser, to detect axion- and {\sc qed}-induced vacuum birefringence is proposed. It uses a slowly modulated magnetic field and a novel polarization geometry. Both axion coupling and…
The invention of laser immediately enabled us to detect nonlinearities of photon interaction in matter, as manifested for example by Franken et al.'s detection of second harmonic generation and the excitation of the Brillouin forward…
Laser-based searches of the yet unobserved vacuum birefringence might be sensitive for very light hypothetical particles carrying a tiny fraction of the electron charge. We show that, with the help of contemporary techniques, polarimetric…
Vacuum polarization (VP) is investigated for the interaction of a polarized $\gamma$-ray beam of GeV photons with a counterpropagating ultraintense laser pulse. In a conventional setup of a vacuum birefringence measurement, a VP signal is…
In very intense electromagnetic fields, the vacuum refractive index is expected to be modified due to nonlinear quantum electrodynamics (QED) properties. Several experimental tests using high intensity lasers have been proposed to observe…
Vacuum magnetic birefringence is one of the most interesting non-linear phenomena in quantum electrodynamics because it is a pure photon-photon result of the theory and it directly signalizes the violation of the classical superposition…
Photons propagating in strong magnetic fields are subject to a phenomenon called the "vacuum birefringence" where refractive indices of two physical modes both deviate from unity and are different from each other. We compute the vacuum…
The quantum vacuum constitutes a fascinating medium of study, in particular since near-future laser facilities will be able to probe the nonlinear nature of this vacuum. There has been a large number of proposed tests of the low-energy,…
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;…
Nonlinear interactions of light with light are well known in quantum electronics, and it is quite common to generate harmonic or subharmonic beams from a primary laser with photonic crystals. One suprising result of quantum electrodynamics…
The birefringence phenomenon in the vacuum with a constant magnetic background of arbitrary strength is considered within the framework of the effective action approach. A new feature of the birefringence in a magnetized vacuum is that the…
The focus of these lectures is on the quantum vacuum subjected to classical electromagnetic fields. To this end we explicitly derive the renowned Heisenberg-Euler effective action in constant electromagnetic fields in a rather pedagogical…
We discuss the experimental techniques used to date for measuring the changes in polarization state of a laser produced by a strong transverse magnetic field acting in a vacuum. We point out the likely artifacts that can arise in such…