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 f
irst 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.
We study how to search for photon-photon scattering in vacuum at present petawatt laser facilities such as HERCULES, and test Quantum Electrodynamics and non-standard models like Born-Infeld theory or scenarios involving minicharged particles or axio
n-like bosons. First, we compute the phase shift that is produced when an ultra-intense laser beam crosses a low power beam, in the case of arbitrary polarisations. This result is then used in order to design a complete test of all the parameters appearing in the low energy effective photonic Lagrangian. In fact, we propose a set of experiments that can be performed at HERCULES, eventually allowing either to detect photon-photon scattering as due to new physics, or to set new limits on the relevant parameters, improving by several orders of magnitude the current constraints obtained recently by PVLAS collaboration. We also describe a multi-cross optical mechanism that can further enhance the sensitivity, enabling HERCULES to detect photon-photon scattering even at a rate as small as that predicted by QED. Finally, we discuss how these results can be improved at future exawatt facilities such as ELI, thus providing a new class of precision tests of the Standard Model and beyond.
We review the theory for photon-photon scattering in vacuum, and some of the proposals for its experimental search, including the results of our recent works on the subject. We then describe a very simple and sensitive proposal of an experiment and d
iscuss how it can be used at the present (HERCULES) and the future (ELI) ultrahigh power laser facilities either to find the first evidence of photon-photon scattering in vacuum, or to significantly improve the current experimental limits.
In a recent paper, we have shown that the QED nonlinear corrections imply a phase correction to the linear evolution of crossing electromagnetic waves in vacuum. Here, we provide a more complete analysis, including a full numerical solution of the QE
D nonlinear wave equations for short-distance propagation in a symmetric configuration. The excellent agreement of such a solution with the result that we obtain using our perturbatively-motivated Variational Approach is then used to justify an analytical approximation that can be applied in a more general case. This allows us to find the most promising configuration for the search of photon-photon scattering in optics experiments. In particular, we show that our previous requirement of phase coherence between the two crossing beams can be released. We then propose a very simple experiment that can be performed at future exawatt laser facilities, such as ELI, by bombarding a low power laser beam with the exawatt bump.
