Related papers: Probing vacuum polarization effects with high-inte…
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…
Quantum vacuum fluctuations give rise to effective non-linear interactions between electromagnetic fields. A prominent signature of quantum vacuum nonlinearities driven by macroscopic fields are signal photons differing in characteristic…
The classical nonlinear laser-plasma interaction theory is corrected. Given the effects of vacuum polarization (induced by extreme laser) as nonlinear media response, one-dimensional wave equations of a monochromatic laser field are derived…
When exposed to intense electromagnetic fields, the quantum vacuum is expected to exhibit properties of a polarisable medium akin to a weakly nonlinear dielectric material. Various schemes have been proposed to measure such vacuum…
The tremendous progress in high-intensity laser technology and the establishment of dedicated high-field laboratories in recent years have paved the way towards a first observation of quantum vacuum nonlinearities at the high-intensity…
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;…
Vacuum polarization, a key prediction of quantum theory, can cause a variety of intriguing phenomena that can be triggered by high-intensity laser pulses. The Heisenberg-Euler theory of the quantum vacuum supplements Maxwell's theory of…
The fundamental theory of quantum electrodynamics predicts the vacuum to resemble a polarizable medium. This gives rise to effective nonlinear interactions between electromagnetic fields and light-by-light scattering phenomena. We study the…
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…
In the collision of a high-energy proton beam and a strong laser field, merging of the laser photons can occur due to the polarization of vacuum. The probability of photon merging is calculated by accounting exactly for the laser field and…
The dispersive effects of vacuum polarization on the propagation of a strong circularly polarized electromagnetic wave through a cold collisional plasma are studied analytically. It is found that, due to the singular dielectric features of…
The self-consistent modeling of vacuum polarization due to virtual electron-positron fluctuations is of relevance for many near term experiments associated with high intensity radiation sources and represents a milestone in describing…
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,…
We consider strong-field effects in laboratory and astrophysical plasmas and high intensity laser and cavity systems. Current state-of-the-art laser facilities are close to reaching energy scales at which quantum electrodynamics will play a…
This contribution presents an overview of fundamental QED processes in the presence of an external field produced by an ultra-intense laser. The discussion focusses on the basic intensity effects on vacuum polarisation and the prospects for…
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…
The influence of the strong laser-driven vacuum on a propagating electromagnetic probe wave has been studied in detail. We investigate two scenarios comprising a focused probe laser beam passing through a region of vacuum polarised by an…
Vacuum birefringence is one of the most striking predictions of strong field quantum electrodynamics: Probe photons traversing a strong field region can indirectly sense the applied "pump" electromagnetic field via quantum fluctuations of…
With the aid of large-scale three-dimensional QED-PIC simulations, we describe a realistic experimental configuration to measure collective effects that couple strong field quantum electrodynamics to plasma kinetics. For two counter…
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…