https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2009-00156-y
Dynamical Schwinger effect and high-intensity lasers. Realising nonperturbative QED
1
Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Wrocław, Max Born pl. 9, 50-204 Wrocław, Poland
2
Bogoliubov Laboratory for Theoretical Physics, Joint Institute for
Nuclear Research, RU-141980 Dubna, Russia
3
Institut für Physik, Universität Rostock, 18051 Rostock, Germany
4
Saratov State University, 410026 Saratov, Russia
5
Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, 60439-4843, USA
6
Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, 52428 Jülich, Germany
7
Technische Univesität Dortmund, Fakultät Physik & DELTA, 44221 Dortmund, Germany
Corresponding author: a blaschke@ift.uni.wroc.pl
Received:
18
November
2008
Revised:
8
April
2009
Published online:
6
June
2009
We consider the possibility of experimental verification of vacuum e+e- pair creation at the focus of two counter-propagating optical laser beams with intensities 1020–10, achievable with present-day petawatt lasers, and approaching the Schwinger limit: 10 to be reached at ELI. Our approach is based on the collisionless kinetic equation for the evolution of the e+ and e- distribution functions governed by a non-Markovian source term for pair production. As possible experimental signals of vacuum pair production we consider e+e- annihilation into γ-pairs and the refraction of a high-frequency probe laser beam by the produced e+e- plasma. We discuss the dependence of the dynamical pair production process on laser wavelength, with special emphasis on applications in the X-ray domain (X-FEL), as well as the prospects for μ+μ- and π+π- pair creation at high-intensity lasers. We investigate perspectives for using high-intensity lasers as “boosters” of ion beams in the few-GeV per nucleon range, which is relevant, e.g., to the exploration of the QCD phase transition in laboratory experiments.
PACS: 12.20.-m – Quantum electrodynamics / 42.50.Hz – Strong-field excitation of optical transitions in quantum systems; multiphoton processes; dynamic Stark shift / 52.38.-r – Laser-plasma interactions
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 2009