Dynamical Schwinger effect and high-intensity lasers. Realising nonperturbative QED

Understand

We consider the possibility of experimental verification of vacuum e^+e^- pair creation at the focus of two counter-propagating optical laser beams with intensities 10^{20}-10^{22} W/cm^2, achievable with present-day petawatt lasers, and approaching the Schwinger limit: 10^{29} W/cm^2 to be reached at ELI.

• Our approach is based on the collisionless kinetic equation for the evolution of the e^+ and e^- distribution functions governed by a non-Markovian source term for pair production.
• As possible experimental signals of vacuum pair production we consider e^+e^- annihilation into gamma-pairs and the refraction of a high-frequency probe laser beam by the produced e^+e^- plasma.
• We discuss the dependence of the dynamical pair production process on laser wavelength, with special emphasis on applications in the X-ray domain (X-FEL), as well as the prospects for \mu^+\mu^- and \pi^+\pi^- pair creation at high-intensity lasers.