Non-perturbative vacuum-polarization effects in proton-laser collisions

Understand

In the collision of a high-energy proton beam and a strong laser field, merging of the laser photons can occur due to the polarization of vacuum.

• The probability of photon merging is calculated by accounting exactly for the laser field and presents a highly non-perturbative dependence on the laser intensity and frequency.
• It is shown that the non-perturbative vacuum-polarization effects can be experimentally measured by combining the next-generation of table-top petawatt lasers with presently available proton accelerators.