Strong field effects in laser pulses: the Wigner formalism
arXiv:1011.1923 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.83.065007
Abstract
We investigate strong field vacuum effects using a phase space approach based on the Wigner formalism. We calculate the Wigner function in a strong null-field background exactly, using lightfront field theory. The Wigner function exhibits the distinct features of strong field QED: in particular we identify the effective mass in a laser pulse, compare it to the well-known mass shift in a periodic plane wave and identify signals of multi-photon absorption and emission. Finally, we show how to extend our results to describe vacuum pair production in colliding laser pulses.
arXiv comment9 pages, 12 .eps figures. Version 2: introduction extended. Published version
References in corpus (29)
- Quantum Chromodynamics and Other Field Theories on the Light Cone
- Nonlinear collective effects in photon-photon and photon-plasma interactions
- On the Observation of Vacuum Birefringence
- Multiple colliding electromagnetic pulses: a way to lower the threshold of pair production from vacuum
- Pair Production from Vacuum at the Focus of an X-Ray Free Electron Laser
- New Strong-Field QED Effects at ELI: Nonperturbative Vacuum Pair Production
- Pair Creation and an X-ray Free Electron Laser
- Momentum signatures for Schwinger pair production in short laser pulses with a sub-cycle structure
- Non-Linear Compton Scattering of Ultrashort and Ultraintense Laser Pulses
- Schwinger pair production in space- and time-dependent electric fields: Relating the Wigner formalism to quantum kinetic theory
- The Stokes Phenomenon and Schwinger Vacuum Pair Production in Time-Dependent Laser Pulses
- Signatures of High-Intensity Compton Scattering
- Finite size effects in stimulated laser pair production
- Schwinger Pair Production via Instantons in Strong Electric Fields
- Pair production in inhomogeneous fields
- Barrier control in tunneling e^+ e^- photoproduction
- Beam-Shape Effects in Nonlinear Compton and Thomson Scattering
- Determining the carrier-envelope phase of intense few-cycle laser pulses
- Pair production and optical lasers
- Relativistic Quantum Transport Theory for Electrodynamics
- On the QED Effective Action in Time Dependent Electric Backgrounds
- Exploring high-intensity QED at ELI
- A Lorentz and gauge invariant measure of laser intensity
- Strong laser fields as a probe for fundamental physics
- Quantum Kinetic Theory for Laser Plasmas. Dynamical Screening in Strong Fields
- On the Quantum Kinetic Approach and the Scattering Approach to Vacuum Pair Production
- On the kinetic equation approach to pair production by time-dependent electric field
- Large orders in strong-field QED
- Enhanced heavy quark-pair production in strong SU(2) color field
Cited by in corpus (32)
- Schwinger mechanism revisited
- Particle self-bunching in the Schwinger effect in spacetime-dependent electric fields
- Vacuum refractive indices and helicity flip in strong-field QED
- Simulating fermion production in 1+1 dimensional QED
- Quantum radiation reaction: from interference to incoherence
- Theory of Radiative Electron Polarization in Strong Laser Fields
- Note on the conjectured breakdown of QED perturbation theory in strong fields
- The intensity dependent mass shift: existence, universality and detection
- Complex Worldline Instantons and Quantum Interference in Vacuum Pair Production
- Super-Adiabatic Particle Number in Schwinger and de Sitter Particle Production
- Semi-relativistic effects in spin-1/2 quantum plasmas
- On the Time Dependence of Adiabatic Particle Number
- Optimization of Schwinger pair production in colliding laser pulses
- Exact final state integrals for strong field QED
- Electron-positron pair production in external electric fields varying both in space and time
- Comparison of semiclassical and Wigner function methods in pair production in rotating fields
- Analytical tools for investigating strong-field QED processes in tightly focused laser fields
- Time-domain quantum interference in graphene
- Streaking at high energies with electrons and positrons
- Pair production: the view from the lightfront
- On the completeness and orthonormality of the Volkov states and the Volkov propagator in configuration space
- Schwinger effect in inhomogeneous electric fields
- Collisional strong-field QED kinetic equations from first principles
- Modulation effect in multiphoton pair production
- Multidimensional quantum tunneling in the Schwinger effect
- Dirac open quantum system dynamics: formulations and simulations
- Back-reaction in strong field QED: a toy model
- Analytical spectrum of nonlinear Thomson scattering including radiation reaction
- Inverse approach to solutions of the Dirac equation for space-time dependent fields
- Generalized quantum Vlasov equation for particle creation and unitary dynamics
- Unitary quantization of a charged scalar field and Schwinger effect
- Quantum unitary dynamics of a charged fermionic field and Schwinger effect