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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Observing light-by-light scattering in vacuum with an asymmetric photon collider

Maitreyi Sangal, Christoph H. Keitel, and Matteo Tamburini*

  • Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Saupfercheckweg 1, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany

  • *matteo.tamburini@mpi-hd.mpg.de
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Phys. Rev. D 104, L111101 – Published 6 December, 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.104.L111101

Abstract

The elastic scattering of two real photons in vacuum is one of the most elusive of the fundamentally new processes predicted by quantum electrodynamics. This explains why, although it was first predicted more than eighty years ago, it has so far remained undetected. Here we show that in present-day facilities, the elastic scattering of two real photons can become detectable far off axis in an asymmetric photon-photon collider setup. This may be obtained within one day of operation time by colliding 1 mJ extreme ultraviolet pulses with the broadband gamma-ray radiation generated in nonlinear Compton scattering of ultrarelativistic electron beams with terawatt-class optical laser pulses operating at a 10 Hz repetition rate. In addition to the investigation of elastic photon-photon scattering, this technique allows us to unveil or constrain new physics that could arise from the coupling of photons to yet undetected particles, therefore opening new avenues for searches of physics beyond the standard model.

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Phys. Rev. D 104, L111101– Published 6 December, 2021
  • Received 7 January 2021
  • Accepted 5 October 2021
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

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