Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T05:54:05.819Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Quantum electrodynamics in intense laser fields

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2009

W. Becker
W. Becker
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy and Center for Advanced Studies, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A very intense laser field polarizes the virtual electron-positron pairs that populate the vacuum. This provides for a coupling between different modes of the electromagnetic field, giving rise to effects such as scattering of light by light, a refractive index of the vacuum, vacuum birefringence, etc. Given enough energy in a sufficiently small spacetime region, the virtual pairs can become real, which leads to pair production in the intense field under the action of a third agent. These, as well as related effects, are summarized with respect to their orders of magnitude and conditions under which they might become accessible to experiment. Some other processes that are normally mentioned in this context, such as Thomson (Compton) scattering at high intensities, are considered, too, even though they are unrelated to the vacuum structure of quantum electrodynamics.

Type
Research Article
Information
Laser and Particle Beams , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , June 1991 , pp. 603 - 618
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Achieser, A. 1937 Phys. Z. Sowjetunion 11, 263.Google Scholar
Adler, S. L. 1971 Ann. Phys. (N. Y.) 67, 599.Google Scholar
Affleck, I. 1988 J. Phys. A 21, 693.Google Scholar
Affleck, I. & Kruglyak, L. 1987 Phys. Rev. Lett. 59, 1065.Google Scholar
Akhmedov, E. K. 1984 Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 87, 1541 [Sov. Phys. JETP 60, 884].Google Scholar
Aleksandrov, E. B., Anselm, A. A. & Moskalev, A. N. 1985 Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 89, 1181 [Sov. Phys. JETP 62, 680].Google Scholar
Baier, V. N., Milshtein, A. I. & Strakhovenko, V. M. 1975 Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz 69, 1893 [Sov. Phys. JETP 42, 961].Google Scholar
Baier, V. N., Milshtein, A. I. & Shaisultanov, R. Zh. 1986 Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 90, 1141 [Sov. Phys. JETP 63, 665].Google Scholar
Baldwin, G. C. & Wender, S. A. 1982 Phys. Rev. Lett. 48, 1461.Google Scholar
Becker, W. & Mitter, H. 1975 J. Phys. A 8, 1638.Google Scholar
Becker, W. & McIver, J. K. 1988 Z. Phys. D 7, 353.Google Scholar
Becker, W., Schlicher, R. R. & Scully, M. O. 1984 Nucl. Phys. A 426, 125.Google Scholar
Becker, W., McIver, J. K. & Schlicher, R. R. 1989 J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 6, 1083.Google Scholar
Bialynicki-Birula, Z. & Bialynicki-Birula, I. 1979 Phys. Rev. D 2, 2341.Google Scholar
Born, M. & Infeld, L. 1934a Proc. R. Soc. A 144, 425.Google Scholar
Born, M. & Infeld, L. 1934b Proc. R. Soc. A 147, 522.Google Scholar
Born, M. & Infeld, L. 1935 Proc. R. Soc. A 150, 141.Google Scholar
Boyer, K., Luk, T. S. & Rhodes, C. K. 1988 Phys. Rev. Lett. 60, 557.Google Scholar
Breit, G. & Wheeler, J. A. 1934 Phys. Rev. 46, 1087.Google Scholar
Brezin, E. & Itzykson, C. 1970 Phys. Rev. D 2, 1191.Google Scholar
Brown, L. S. & Kibble, T. W. B. 1964 Phys. Rev. 133, A7O5.Google Scholar
Carussotto, S. et al. 1989 Appl. Phys. B 48, 231.Google Scholar
Collins, C. B. et al. 1979 Phys. Rev. C 20, 1942.Google Scholar
Deser, S. 1975 J. Phys. A 8, 1972.Google Scholar
Detollis, B. 1965 Nuovo Cimento 35, 1182.Google Scholar
Eberly, J. H. 1969 Prog. Opt. VII, 359.Google Scholar
Englert, T. J. & Rinehart, E. A. 1983 Phys. Rev. A 28, 1539.Google Scholar
Erber, T. 1966 Rev. Mod. Phys. 38, 626.Google Scholar
Euler, H. 1936 Ann Phys.(Leipzig) 26, 398.Google Scholar
Friar, J. & Reiss, H. R. 1987 Phys. Rev. C 36, 283.Google Scholar
Greiner, W., Müller, B. & Raffelski, J. 1985 Quantum Electrodynamics of Strong Fields (Springer, Berlin).Google Scholar
Greiner, W. 1991 In Proceedings of the NATO ASI on Quantum Electrodynamics and Quantum Optics, edited by Barut, A. O. (Plenum, New York).Google Scholar
Heisenberg, W. & Euler, H. 1936 Z. Phys. 98, 714.Google Scholar
Ho, Y.-K. & Pan, Zh.-Y. 1988 Nucl. Phys. A 486, 271.Google Scholar
Hora, H. 1974 In Laser Interaction and Related Plasma Phenomena, edited by Schwartz, H. & Hora, H. (Plenum, New York), Vol. 3B, p. 819.Google Scholar
Karplus, R. & Neuman, M. 1950 Phys. Rev. 80, 380.Google Scholar
Kibble, T. W. B. 1966 Phys. Rev. 150, 1060.Google Scholar
Iacopini, E. et al. 1981 Nuovo Cimento B 61, 21.Google Scholar
McDonald, K. T. 1986 Princeton University Report No. DOE/ER/3072–38.Google Scholar
Mitter, H. 1975 Acta Phys. Austriaca Suppl. XIV, 397.Google Scholar
Mittleman, M. H. 1987 Phys. Rev. A 35, 4624.Google Scholar
Narozhnyi, N. B., Nikishov, A. I. & Ritus, V. I. 1964 Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 47, 930 [Sov. Phys. JETP 20, 622].Google Scholar
Nikishov, A. I. & Ritus, V. I. 1964 Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 46, 776 [Sov. Phys. JETP 19, 529].Google Scholar
Nikishov, A. I. 1979 Tr. Fiz. Inst. Akad. Nauk SSSR 111, 152.Google Scholar
Olariu, S., Popescu, I. & Collins, C. B. 1981a Phys. Rev. C 23, 50.Google Scholar
Olariu, S., Popescu, I. & Collins, C. B. 1981b Phys. Rev. C 23 1007.Google Scholar
Reiss, H. R. 1962 J. Math. Phys. 3, 59.Google Scholar
Reiss, H. R. 1983a Phys. Rev. C 27, 1199.Google Scholar
Reiss, H. R. 1983b Phys. Rev. C 27, 1229.Google Scholar
Reiss, H. R. 1983c Phys. Rev. C 28, 1402.Google Scholar
Ritus, V. I. 1979 Tr. Fiz. Inst. Akad. Nauk SSSR 111, 2.Google Scholar
Sandorfi, A. M. et al. 1983 IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci. NS-30, 3083.Google Scholar
Sarachik, E. S. & Schappert, G. T. 1970 Phys. Rev. D 1, 2738.Google Scholar
Schlicher, R. R., Becker, W. & Scully, M. O. 1984 In Proceedings of the NATO ASI on Nonequilibrium Cooperative Phenomena in Physics and Related Fields, edited by Velarde, M. G. (Plenum, New York), p. 145.Google Scholar
Schwinger, J. 1951 Phys. Rev. 82, 664.Google Scholar
Shearer, J. W. et al. 1973 Phys. Rev. A 8, 1582.Google Scholar
Van Dyck, R. S. Jr., Schwinberg, P. B. & Dehmelt, H. G. 1977 Phys. Rev. Lett. 38, 310.Google Scholar
Yakovlev, V. P. 1965 Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 49, 318 [Sov. Phys. JETP 22, 223].Google Scholar
Zaretskii, D. F. & Lomonosov, V. V. 1981 Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 81, 429 [Sov. Phys. JETP 54, 229].Google Scholar
Zaretskii, D. F. & Lomonosov, V. V. 1983 Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 84, 1951 [Sov. Phys. JETP 57, 1136].Google Scholar