Stimulated photon emission from the vacuum Article Swipe
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· 2015
· Open Access
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· DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.91.113002
· OA: W1481384656
We study the effect of stimulated photon emission from the vacuum in strong\nspace-time-dependent electromagnetic fields. We emphasize the viewpoint that\nthe vacuum subjected to macroscopic electromagnetic fields with at least one\nnonzero electromagnetic field invariant, as, e.g., attainable by superimposing\ntwo laser beams, can represent a source term for outgoing photons. We believe\nthat this view is particularly intuitive and allows for a straightforward and\nintuitive study of optical signatures of quantum vacuum nonlinearity in\nrealistic experiments involving the collision of high-intensity laser pulses,\nand exemplify this view for the vacuum subjected to a strong standing\nelectromagnetic wave as generated in the focal spot of two counterpropagating,\nlinearly polarized, high-intensity laser pulses. Focusing on a comparably\nsimple electromagnetic field profile, which should nevertheless capture the\nessential features of the electromagnetic fields generated in the focal spots\nof real high-intensity laser beams, we provide estimates for emission\ncharacteristics and the numbers of emitted photons attainable with present and\nnear future high-intensity laser facilities.\n
