High-Energy Vacuum Birefringence and Dichroism in an Ultrastrong Laser Field

Physical Review Letters
Sergey BraginA Di Piazza

Abstract

A long-standing prediction of quantum electrodynamics, yet to be experimentally observed, is the interaction between real photons in vacuum. As a consequence of this interaction, the vacuum is expected to become birefringent and dichroic if a strong laser field polarizes its virtual particle-antiparticle dipoles. Here, we derive how a generally polarized probe photon beam is influenced by both vacuum birefringence and dichroism in a strong linearly polarized plane-wave laser field. Furthermore, we consider an experimental scheme to measure these effects in the nonperturbative high-energy regime, where the Euler-Heisenberg approximation breaks down. By employing circularly polarized high-energy probe photons, as opposed to the conventionally considered linearly polarized ones, the feasibility of quantitatively confirming the prediction of nonlinear QED for vacuum birefringence at the 5σ confidence level on the time scale of a few days is demonstrated for upcoming 10 PW laser systems. Finally, dichroism and anomalous dispersion in vacuum are shown to be accessible at these facilities.

References

May 1, 1993·Physical Review. D·R CameronE Zavattini
Apr 12, 2006·Physical Review Letters·E LundströmP Norreys
Oct 10, 2006·Physical Review Letters·A Di PiazzaC H Keitel
Dec 13, 2006·Physical Review Letters·Holger GiesAndreas Ringwald
Aug 27, 2011·Physical Review Letters·Gagik Yu Kryuchkyan, Karen Z Hatsagortsyan
Dec 18, 2012·Reports on Progress in Physics·R Battesti, C Rizzo
Jun 13, 2013·Nature Communications·Xiaoming WangM C Downer
Apr 25, 2015·Physical Review Letters·Sebastian MeurenAntonino Di Piazza
May 2, 2015·Journal of Synchrotron Radiation·Makina YabashiTetsuya Ishikawa

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Citations

Jul 13, 2019·Physical Review Letters·B HafiziD Kaganovich
Nov 30, 2019·The Review of Scientific Instruments·W H YuanZ H Lu
Jan 25, 2020·Physical Review Letters·Yan-Fei LiJian-Xing Li
May 31, 2019·Physical Review Letters·V YakimenkoG White
Aug 17, 2021·Physical Review Letters·J AdamUNKNOWN STAR Collaboration

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