No Arabic abstract
We show that a laser beam can be diffracted by a more concentrated light pulse due to quantum vacuum effects. We compute analytically the intensity pattern in a realistic experimental configuration, and discuss how it can be used to measure for the first time the parameters describing photon-photon scattering in vacuum. In particular, we show that the Quantum Electrodynamics prediction can be detected in a single-shot experiment at future 100 petawatt lasers such as ELI or HIPER. On the other hand, if carried out at one of the present high power facilities, such as OMEGA EP, this proposal can lead either to the discovery of non-standard physics, or to substantially improve the current PVLAS limits on the photon-photon cross section at optical wavelengths. This new example of manipulation of light by light is simpler to realize and more sensitive than existing, alternative proposals, and can also be used to test Born-Infeld theory or to search for axion-like or minicharged particles.
Phase reversal occurs in the propagation of an electromagnetic wave in a negatively refracting medium or a phase-conjugate interface. Here we report the experimental observation of phase reversal diffraction without the above devices. Our experimental results and theoretical analysis demonstrate that phase reversal diffraction can be formed through the first-order field correlation of chaotic light. The experimental realization is similar to phase reversal behavior in negatively refracting media.
Bragg diffraction of an atomic wave packet in a retroreflective geometry with two counterpropagating optical lattices exhibits a light shift induced phase. We show that the temporal shape of the light pulse determines the behavior of this phase shift: In contrast to Raman diffraction, Bragg diffraction with Gaussian pulses leads to a significant suppression of the intrinsic phase shift due to a scaling with the third power of the inverse Doppler frequency. However, for box-shaped laser pulses, the corresponding shift is twice as large as for Raman diffraction. Our results are based on approximate, but analytical expressions as well as a numerical integration of the corresponding Schrodinger equation.
Elastic scattering of laser radiation due to vacuum polarization by spatially modulated strong electromagnetic fields is considered. The Bragg interference arising at a specific impinging direction of the probe wave concentrates the scattered light in specular directions. The interference maxima are enhanced with respect to the usual vacuum polarization effect proportional to the square of the number of modulation periods within the interaction region. The Bragg scattering can be employed to detect the vacuum polarization effect in a setup of multiple crossed super-strong laser beams with parameters envisaged in the future Extreme Light Infrastructure.
We consider one-dimensional propagation of quantum light in the presence of a block of material, with a full account of dispersion and absorption. The electromagnetic zero-point energy for some frequencies is damped (suppressed) by the block below the free-space value, while for other frequencies it is increased. We also calculate the regularized (Casimir) zero-point energy at each frequency and find that it too is damped below the free-space value (zero) for some frequencies. The total Casimir energy is positive.
We briefly review the current status of the hadronic light-by-light scattering contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. Based on various model calculations in the literature, we obtain the estimate a_{mu}^{HLbL} = (102 pm 39) x 10^{-11}. Recent developments including more model-independent approaches using dispersion relations and lattice QCD, that could lead to a more reliable estimate, are also discussed.