Dynamical Schwinger effect and high-intensity lasers. Realising nonperturbative QED

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential for experimental verification of vacuum electron-positron pair creation using high-intensity lasers, analyzing the process's dependence on laser parameters and possible observable signals.

Contribution

It introduces a kinetic equation approach to model nonperturbative pair production and discusses experimental signals and applications in high-intensity laser experiments.

Findings

Pair creation signals include e^+e^- annihilation and laser beam refraction.

Dependence of pair production on laser wavelength, especially in the X-ray domain.

Prospects for creating muon and pion pairs at high laser intensities.

Abstract

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 10^{20}-10^{22} W/cm^2, achievable with present-day petawatt lasers, and approaching the Schwinger limit: 10^{29} W/cm^2 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 gamma-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 \mu^+\mu^- and \pi^+\pi^- 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.