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Pair production and optical lasers.

D B Blaschke1, A V Prozorkevich, C D Roberts

  • 1Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI) mbH, Planckstrasse 1, D-64291 Darmstadt, Germany.

Physical Review Letters
|May 23, 2006
PubMed
Summary
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Electron-positron pair creation in standing waves is explored. Optical lasers induce vacuum polarization, creating a plasma, with residual pairs indicating vacuum decay, potentially yielding observable annihilation events.

Area of Science:

  • Quantum Electrodynamics (QED)
  • Plasma Physics
  • High-Intensity Laser Physics

Background:

  • The quantum vacuum, typically considered empty, can exhibit complex behavior under strong electromagnetic fields.
  • Understanding vacuum polarization is crucial for probing fundamental physics at extreme conditions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate electron-positron pair creation in a standing electromagnetic wave using a parameter-free quantum kinetic equation.
  • To characterize the resulting plasma and residual pair density as a manifestation of vacuum decay.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized a parameter-free quantum kinetic equation to model pair creation.
  • Simulated scenarios with field strengths and frequencies of modern optical lasers.
  • Analyzed the density of created pairs and residual pairs as a function of laser parameters.

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Main Results:

  • Optical lasers induce vacuum polarization, creating an electron-positron (e+e-) quasiparticle plasma with densities up to 10^20 cm^-3.
  • A small residual pair density (n(r)) persists after the field, signifying vacuum decay.
  • Average pair density scales with laser intensity, while residual pair density scales with intensity and frequency squared (nu^2).

Conclusions:

  • Dynamical QED vacuum effects are significant with current optical lasers.
  • These effects can lead to observable two-photon annihilation events (5-10 per pulse).
  • The study provides a theoretical framework for experimental verification of vacuum decay phenomena.