On e^+e^- pair production by a focused laser pulse in vacuum
Abstract
The probability of electron-positron pair creation by a focused laser pulse is calculated. For description of the focused laser pulse we use a 3-dimensional model of the electromagnetic field which is based on an exact solution of Maxwell equations. There exists two types of focused waves: e- and h-polarized waves with only either electric, or magnetic vector being transverse respectively. It is shown that pair production is possible only in -polarized electromagnetic wave. The dependence of the pair production probability on the intensity of the laser pulse is obtained. It is argued that there exists a natural physical limit for attainable focused laser pulse intensities. This limit is posed by the pulse energy loss due to the effect of pair creation.
Cite
@article{arxiv.hep-ph/0403163,
title = {On e^+e^- pair production by a focused laser pulse in vacuum},
author = {S. S. Bulanov and N. B. Narozhny and V. D. Mur and V. S. Popov},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-ph/0403163},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
9 pages, 5 figures, 1 table; revtex4