Photon-photon scattering in collisions of laser pulses

TL;DR

This paper investigates the potential to measure elastic and inelastic photon-photon scattering using modern high-power laser pulses, demonstrating that such processes could be experimentally observed with current laser technology.

Contribution

It provides a detailed calculation showing that elastic photon-photon scattering can be measured with a single 10PW laser, and inelastic scattering may be detectable with sub-cycle pulses.

Findings

Elastic scattering measurable with a single 10PW laser

Inelastic scattering detectable with sub-cycle pulses

Quantitative estimates of scattered photon numbers

Abstract

A scenario for measuring the predicted processes of vacuum elastic and inelastic photon-photon scattering with modern lasers is investigated. Numbers of measurable scattered photons are calculated for the collision of two, Gaussian-focused, pulsed lasers. We show that a single 10PW optical laser beam split into two counter-propagating pulses is sufficient for measuring the elastic process. Moreover, when these pulses are sub-cycle, our results suggest the inelastic process should be measurable too.