Abstract
For high enough electromagnetic fields, such as those that can be achieved by ultra-intense laser pulses, light is expected to interact with light through the interchange of virtual particles. A rich phenomenology is then predicted to occur, such as the possible production of real electron-positron pairs for electromagnetic fields close enough to the Schwinger limit, or the polarization of the vacuum itself. These effects may be amplified by new physics, so that their search can also be used to test non-standard models involving axions or mini-charged particles. A recent work suggests that the diffraction of light by light in vacuum, in the absence of any material slit or obstacle, is most probably the first signature of the polarization of the vacuum that will be reachable in the near future. Surprisingly enough, this result could be achieved very soon in principle, either at a high repetition rate Petawatt facility such as VEGA, that is expected to be operative at the beginning of 2014 in Salamanca, Spain, or at other Multi-PW facilities, such as ELI-10 PW or PETAL. Calculations for a prospective 100-PW system are also included.
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Acknowledgements
We acknowledge support from Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (through the projects Consolider Program SAUUL CSD2007-00013, FCCI: ACI-PROMOCIONA ACI2009-1008, and FIS2009-09522), and from the Spanish Junta de Castilla y Leon (project CLP421A12-1).
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Tommasini, D., Novoa, D., Roso, L. (2014). Quantum Vacuum Polarization Searches with High Power Lasers Below the Pair Production Regime. In: Yamanouchi, K., Paulus, G., Mathur, D. (eds) Progress in Ultrafast Intense Laser Science. Springer Series in Chemical Physics(), vol 106. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00521-8_9
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