Ultrarelativistic quasiclassical wave functions in strong laser and atomic fields

TL;DR

This paper derives ultrarelativistic quasiclassical wave functions for electrons in combined strong laser and atomic fields, enabling precise analysis of quantum electrodynamics phenomena involving intense fields.

Contribution

It provides explicit in- and out-wave functions for ultrarelativistic electrons in combined strong laser and atomic fields, incorporating effects of both fields exactly from the outset.

Findings

Derived explicit wave functions for ultrarelativistic electrons in combined fields

Enables detailed analysis of strong-field QED processes

Facilitates future theoretical and experimental investigations

Abstract

The problem of an ultrarelativistic charge in the presence of an atomic and a plane-wave field is investigated in the quasiclassical regime by including exactly the effects of both background fields. Starting from the quasiclassical Green's function obtained in [Phys. Lett. B \textbf{717}, 224 (2012)], the corresponding in- and out-wave functions are derived in the experimentally relevant case of the particle initially counterpropagating with respect to the plane wave. The knowledge of these electron wave functions opens the possibility of investigating a variety of problems in strong-field QED, where both the atomic field and the laser field are strong enough to be taken into account exactly from the beginning in the calculations.