Related papers: Fundamental constants from photon-photon scatterin…
According to the theory of quantum electrodynamics, photon-photon scattering can take place via exchange of virtual electron-positron pairs. Effectively, the interaction can be formulated in terms of non-linear corrections to Maxwell's…
The elastic scattering of two real photons in vacuum is one of the most elusive of the fundamentally new processes predicted by quantum electrodynamics. This explains why, although it was first predicted more than eighty years ago, it has…
Light-by-light scatterings contain rich information on the photon coupling to virtual and real particle states. In the context of quantum electrodynamics (QED), photons can couple to a virtual $e^+e^-$ pair. Photons may also couple to known…
Quasi-elastic scattering processes have long been thought of providing the most promising signal for a first experimental detection of quantum vacuum nonlinearity. A prominent example of such a process is vacuum birefringence. However,…
Real photon-photon scattering is a long-predicted phenomenon that is being searched for in experiment in the form of a birefringent vacuum at optical and X-ray frequencies. We present results of calculations and numerical simulations for a…
We calculate signals of real photon-photon scattering in the collision of three laser pulses. Taking goal parameters from the Station of Extreme Light at the upcoming Shanghai Coherent Light Source, we consider two scenarios: i) the…
The properties of four-wave interaction via the nonlinear quantum vacuum is investigated. The effect of the quantum vacuum is to generate photons with new frequencies and wave vectors, due to elastic photon-photon scattering. An expression…
Up to date, quantum electrodynamics (QED) is the most precisely tested quantum field theory. Nevertheless, particularly in the high-intensity regime it predicts various phenomena that so far have not directly been accessible in all-optical…
Birefringence is one of the fascinating properties of the vacuum of quantum electrodynamics (QED) in strong electromagnetic fields. The scattering of linearly polarized incident probe photons into a perpendicularly polarized mode provides a…
We report a search for photon-photon elastic scattering in vacuum in the X-ray region at an energy in the center of mass system of \omega_{cms} =6.5 keV for which the QED cross section is \sigma_{QED} =2.5 \times 10^{-47} m^2. An X-ray beam…
We derive expressions for the coupling coefficients for electromagnetic four-wave mixing in the non-linear quantum vacuum. An experimental setup for detection of elastic photon-photon scattering is suggested, where three incoming laser…
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…
We report on a direct search for elastic photon-photon scattering using x-ray and $\gamma$ photons from a laser-plasma based experiment. A gamma photon beam produced by a laser wakefield accelerator provided a broadband gamma spectrum…
In a recent paper, we have shown that the QED nonlinear corrections imply a phase correction to the linear evolution of crossing electromagnetic waves in vacuum. Here, we provide a more complete analysis, including a full numerical solution…
In spatially structured strong laser fields, quantum electrodynamical vacuum behaves like a nonlinear Kerr medium with modulated third-order susceptibility where new coherent nonlinear effects arise due to modulation. We consider the…
Photon--photon scattering in vacuum due to the interaction with virtual electron-positron pairs is a consequence of quantum electrodynamics. A way for detecting this phenomenon has been devised based on interacting modes generated in…
A scenario for measuring the predicted processes of vacuum elastic and inelastic photon-photon scattering with modern lasers is investigated. Numbers of measurable scattered photons are calculated for the collision of two, Gaussian-focused,…
We discuss intensity effects in collisions between beams of optical photons from a high-power laser and relativistic electrons. Our main focus are the modifications of the emission spectra due to realistic finite-beam geometries. By…
In the last decades, the blossoming of experimental breakthroughs in the domain of electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) has triggered a variety of theoretical developments. Those have to deal with completely different situations, from…
Signatures of strong-field quantum electrodynamics are determined for collisions between round ultrarelativistic leptonic beams in the quantum limit of beamstrahlung. In the low disruption regime, we derive the integrated beamstrahlung…