Nonperturbative signatures in pair production for general elliptic polarization fields

TL;DR

This paper investigates how elliptic polarization affects nonperturbative pair production, revealing how polarization influences momentum signatures, node structures, and thresholds, with implications for particle detection and laser pulse characterization.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of momentum signatures in pair production under general elliptic polarization fields using the Dirac-Heisenberg-Wigner formalism, highlighting polarization effects on spectra and thresholds.

Findings

Node positions depend on electric field frequency in linear polarization.

Polarization alters node structures and production thresholds.

Momentum signatures can reveal orbital angular momentum of pairs.

Abstract

The momentum signatures in nonperturbative multiphoton pair production for general elliptic polarization electric fields are investigated by employing the real-time Dirac-Heisenberg-Wigner formalism. For a linearly polarized electric field we find that the positions of the nodes in momenta spectra of created pairs depend only on the electric field frequency. The polarization of external fields could not only change the node structures or even make the nodes disappear but also change the thresholds of pair production. The momentum signatures associated to the node positions in which the even-number-photon pair creation process is forbid could be used to distinguish the orbital angular momentum of created pairs on the momenta spectra. These distinguishable momentum signatures could be relevant for providing the output information of created particles and also the input information of ultrashort laser pulses.