Finite size effect in pair production, nonperturbative quantum fields, and fundamental physics with ELI

Mattias Marklund Department of Physics Ume University Sweden

ELI Beamlines Scientific Challenges Workshop Prague, Apr 26-27, 2010
Supported by the ERC

Overview
Background. The quantum vacuum. Pair production Mechanisms and field structure effects. Importance of pulse shape. The Unruh effect. Hawking radiation and black holes. Noncommutativity. Spacetime structure in the lab?

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Overview
Background. The quantum vacuum. Pair production Mechanisms and field structure effects. Importance of pulse shape. The Unruh effect. Hawking radiation and black holes. Noncommutativity. Spacetime structure in the lab?

Order of difficulty
2

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Bakground: opportunity with ELI

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The Nonlinear Vacuum

Special Relativity + quantum mechanics = virtual particle pair fluctuations. Properly described by QED. Photons can effectively interact via pair fluctuations. Vacuum has properties, constitutes a virtual pair plasma: dispersive, dissipative, nonlinear, birefringent, polarizable (Lundstrm et al., 2006, King et al. 2010). Low-energy photons:

h 2me c2

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The Nonlinear Vacuum

Experiment on photon-photon scattering (Lundstrm et al. 2006). Us Using

Using diffraction experiment with virtual slits (King et al. 2010).

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Pair production
High energy photons may of course create pairs. Low-energy photons: pair production from multi-photon process, i.e. above critical field strength. Sauters resolution to the Klein paradox: static electric field may cause the vacuum to go unsable (Sauter 1931).
16 Electrostatic fields under the critical field Ecrit 10 V/cm is exponentially surpressed (Schwinger 1951).

ELI is closing in on this, only two orders of magnitude below critical field strength.
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Pair production
The SLAC experiment (also Bamber et al. 1999, recently all-optical).

Burke et al., PRL 79, 1626 (1997)

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e2 m2 n/32 2 106 d 3W 3.0

Pair production
Pulse shape dependence in stimulated production (Heinzl et al. 2010).

2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 0 10 d 3W 4

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a0 =

eE =2 m
N =1

p'

The differential cross section plotted as a function of 3 transverse positron 2 momentum for a pulsed plane wave with 4 fs, 8 fs, and 16 fs 1 laser pulses (top to bottom) (Krausz and Ivanov 2009; 0 106 d 3W 8 Mackenroth et al. 2010). Longer pulses gives rise to delta-like comb. Finite width gives rate structure and sub-threshold peak.
6 4 2

N =2

p'

N =4

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p'
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Pair production
Important because: Nonperturbative QED. Ionisation dynamics (e.g. Reiss, PRL 2008; Blaga et al., Nature Phys. 2009). Nonlinear scattering events (Heinzl et al., PRA 2010).

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The Unruh effect

A touch of gravity? Hawking (1974) and Unruh (1976). Experiments (Chen & Tajima 1999; Schtzhold et al. 2006, 2008; Brodin et al. 2008). Thermodynamics Spacetime structure Quantum fields

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The Unruh effect

A touch of gravity? Hawking (1974) and Unruh (1976). Experiments (Chen & Tajima 1999; Schtzhold et al. 2006, 2008; Brodin et al. 2008). Thermodynamics Spacetime structure Quantum fields

g TH = 2ckB
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The Unruh effect

A touch of gravity? Hawking (1974) and Unruh (1976). Experiments (Chen & Tajima 1999; Schtzhold et al. 2006, 2008; Brodin et al. 2008). Thermodynamics Spacetime structure Quantum fields

Acceleration

g TH = 2ckB
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a TU = 2ckB
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The Unruh effect

A touch of gravity? Hawking (1974) and Unruh (1976). Experiments (Chen & Tajima 1999; Schtzhold et al. 2006, 2008; Brodin et al. 2008). Thermodynamics Spacetime structure Quantum fields

Acceleration

g TH = 2ckB
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a TU = 2ckB
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Use weakly focused ELI to avoid competing noise sources.

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Noncommutativity
Strong magnetic field + Landau quantization gives large spectral gap in Landau levels. Noncommutativity (NC) in the plane orthogonal to the magnetic field. NC is also introduced in attempts to quantize gravity (Amelino-Camelia & Kowalski-Glikman 2005). Breaking of Lorentz invariance at small scales. Very high energy scale (?); IR/UV mixing. Also suggested to be probed using vacuum birefringence experiments (Abel et al. JHEP 2006).
http://www.cpt.univ-mrs.fr/~rovelli/
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Noncommutativity
Noncommuting coordinates [x , x ] = i

Laser intensity effects to counter the energy scale (Heinzl et al., PRD 2010). Pair production: depends periodically on collision angle, larger cross section, Threshold (number of photons, for ELI parameters) lowered from QED value

n0,

Laser can thus put lower limits on the involved phenomenological parameters.

2 108 m6 n0 ||2 k k

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Tool for analyzing deviations from standard models

Effects through parametrized generalized Maxwell Dirac system (Lmmerzahl, Appl. Phys. B, 2006)

-Birefringence. -Anisotropic speed of light. -Anisotropy in quantum fields. -Violations of universality of free fall and the
universality of the gravitational redshift. -Time and space variations of constants. -Charge non-conservations. -Anomalous dispersion. -Decoherence and spacetime fluctuations. -Modified interference. -Non-localities.

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Theoretical developments?
Pair production one aspect of more complex dynamical problem.

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Theoretical developments?
Pair production one aspect of g ner E more complex dynamical problem.
ty nsi e int and QFT y
Pair production Sourced plasmas

Relativistic QM
FermiDirac statistics Zitterbewegung

Lowest order relativistic QM

Magnetization Spinorbit coupling

Non-relativistic QM
Wave function dispersion Electron correlation Tunneling
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Theoretical developments?
Pair production one aspect of g ner E more complex dynamical problem.
ty nsi e int and QFT y
Pair production Sourced plasmas

Relativistic QM
FermiDirac statistics Zitterbewegung

Lowest order relativistic QM

Magnetization Spinorbit coupling

Non-relativistic QM
Wave function dispersion Electron correlation Tunneling
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Coherent (computational) theory?

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Conclusions
Pair production contains a rich substructure. Can give information about the pp process, can give information about the pulse, can teach us something about ionization and scattering events. Gives input into nonperturbative quantum field theory. Detailed pulse shapes? Subcycle structure? Hopefully a first step towards analysing fundamental physical question, highly complex relativistic processes.
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