Speaker
Rui Pedro Torres
Description
See the full Abstract at http://ocs.ciemat.es/EPS2018ABS/pdf/P4.2027.pdf
Laser-induced vacuum birefringence beyond idealized setups
R. Torres1 , T. Grismayer1 , R.A. Fonseca1,2 , L.O. Silva1
1 GoLP/Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de
Lisboa, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal
2 DCTI/ISCTE - Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, 1649-026 Lisbon, Portugal
The prospect of coupling ultra-intense lasers with x-ray sources (e.g. at SLAC or XFEL) will
allow to perform the first experiments on probing the quantum vacuum. For this scenario, ei-
ther an analytical solution cannot be found or the analytic methods are inefficient due to the
increasing complexity coming from the setup or the electromagnetic profiles of the laser pulses.
Consequently, we have developed a numerical method to self-consistently solve the nonlinear
system of Maxwell’s equations including quantum corrections of the vacuum polarization [1].
This will allow modelling future planned experiments aiming to measure the induced ellipticity
on an x-ray pulse after probing a strong optical laser due to quantum vacuum fluctuations [2].
Realistically, experimental conditions are not ideal and one should study the impact of these
imperfections in the signatures resulting from quantum electrodynamic processes. In this way,
we will be able to optimize the experimental setup in order to perform the first direct detection
of the photon-photon scattering. We present simulation results of the ellipticity induced for a
set of non-ideal setups: misalignment of the central axis of the x-ray probe and the ultra-intense
optical pump pulse, different polarization angles between the x-ray and optical laser pulses,
temporal mismatch of the pulses focuses (timing jitter) and finite-size multi-dimensional ef-
fects [3]. This code has been benchmarked for simpler cases, giving us the confidence to tackle
realistic setups. Ultimately, our code is capable of exploring regimes unachievable by a theoret-
ical analysis, which is going to be of great utility for the extremely high-intensity laser physics
society.
References
[1] P. Carneiro, T. Grismayer, R.A. Fonseca and L.O. Silva, arXiv:1607.04224v2 (2017)
[2] V. Dinu, T. Heinzl, A. Ilderton, M. Marklund, G. Torgrimsson, Phys. Rev. D 90, 045025 (2014)
[3] B. King and C.H. Keitel, New J. Phys. 14, 103002 (2012)
