Geometry of attosecond laser pulses and photon-photon scattering at high energies

TL;DR

This paper derives the photon-laser pulse scattering cross section at high energies, considering multi-photon interactions and nonlinear effects, showing these effects are relevant at high intensities below the Schwinger limit.

Contribution

It provides a detailed derivation of the scattering cross section including multi-photon interactions and analyzes the significance of nonlinear effects at high laser intensities.

Findings

Nonlinear effects become significant at very high laser intensities.

These intensities are below the Schwinger critical value.

The total cross section accounts for all multi-photon interactions.

Abstract

We derive the total cross section for scattering of a photon on an ultra-short laser pulse at high energies. We take into account all multi-photon interactions. We argue that the nonlinear effects due to these interactions become important at very high intensities of the laser pulse. We demonstrate however, that these intensities are significantly lower than the Schwinger critical value.