Tests of classical and quantum electrodynamics with intense laser fields
Antonino Di Piazza
Max-Planck-Institut fur Kernphysik, Heidelberg, Germany
Vendredi 27/02/2015, 11:00-12:00
Bat 703, p 45, CEA Saclay, Orme des Merisiers

Classical electrodynamics (CED) and quantum electrodynamics (QED) are well established

theories and their predictions have been confirmed experimentally in various regimes.

However, there are still areas of CED and of QED that deserve theoretical and experimental

investigation, especially when processes occur in the presence of "strong" background

electromagnetic fields, i.e., of the order of the so-called critical field of QED [1]. In view of

the increasingly stronger available laser fields it is becoming feasible to employ them to test

CED and QED under the extreme conditions supplied by intense fields [1]. After a broad

introduction on the typical scales of CED and QED, we will describe different regimes of

laser-matter interaction at ultra-high laser intensities and experimental efforts to test the

two theories under such extreme conditions. As a prominent theoretical example of open

problems which can be addressed also experimentally, we focus on the so-called "radiation

reaction" problem: classically, when a charged particle is accelerated by an external field,

it emits radiation and this emission alters the motion of the charge itself. The problem of

finding a self-consistent equation of motion in the realm of CED has resulted in unphysical

equations, which have raised a long-standing, still open debate on the subject already at a 

classical level. Also, the quantum origin of radiation reaction will be discussed, by relating 

radiation reaction itself to the emission by a charge of multiple photons.

 

[1] A. Di Piazza, C. Muller, K. Z. Hatsagortsyan, and C. H. Keitel, Rev. Mod. Phys. 84, 1177 (2012).

 

Contact : platchkov

 

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