- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine

Physical Review D

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Letter
  • Open Access

Pair production in circularly polarized waves

Christian Kohlfürst*

  • *Contact author: c.kohlfuerst@hzdr.de
PDF

Phys. Rev. D 110, L111903 – Published 30 December, 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.110.L111903

Abstract

We study electron-positron pair production within two counterpropagating, circularly polarized electromagnetic fields through the Wigner formalism. We numerically generate high-resolution momentum maps to perform a detailed spectroscopic analysis. We identify signatures of polarization and kinematics of the incident fields in the final positron distribution and, on this basis, provide an intuitive picture of helicity transfer in multiphoton pair production.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

Supplemental Material

References (101)

  1. T. Heinzl and A. Ilderton, Eur. Phys. J. D 55, 359 (2009).
  2. M. Marklund and J. Lundin, Eur. Phys. J. D 55, 319 (2009).
  3. H. Gies, Eur. Phys. J. D 55, 311 (2009).
  4. D. L. Burke, R. C. Field, G. Horton-Smith et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 79, 1626 (1997).
  5. C. Bamber, S. J. Boege, T. Koffas et al., Phys. Rev. D 60, 092004 (1999).
  6. A. Fedotov, A. Ilderton, F. Karbstein, B. King, D. Seipt, H. Taya, and G. Torgrimsson, Phys. Rep. 1010, 1 (2023).
  7. J. W. Yoon, Y. G. Kim, I. W. Choi, J. H. Sung, H. W. Lee, S. K. Lee, and C. H. Nam, Optica 8, 630 (2021).
  8. J. Adam et al. (STAR Collaboration), Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 052302 (2021).
  9. V. Yakimenko, L. Alsberg, E. Bong et al., Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams 22, 101301 (2019).
  10. H. Abramowicz et al., Eur. Phys. J. Special Topics 230, 2445 (2021).
  11. A. Ringwald, Phys. Lett. B 510, 107 (2001).
  12. D. Kremp, Th. Bornath, M. Bonitz, and M. Schlanges, Phys. Rev. E 60, 4725 (1999).
  13. S. Meuren, C. H. Keitel, and A. Di Piazza, J. High Energy Phys. 06 (2015) 127.
  14. S. Evans and R. Schützhold, Phys. Rev. D 109, L091901 (2024).
  15. K. Qu, S. Meuren, and N. J. Fisch, Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 095001 (2021).
  16. S. Meuren, D. A. Reis, R. Blandford et al., arXiv:2105.11607.

  17. For clarification, in the literature one distinguishes between different mechanisms of pair production [18, 19, 20, 21]. Here, we consider particle creation through nonquantized “background” fields. Nevertheless, we still use the term “photon” as an electromagnetic wave can be considered a collection of energy packets with specific energy and momentum. In this context, the term “multiphoton pair production” refers to the interaction of coherent photons within such c-number fields.

  18. F. Sauter, Z. Phys. 69, 742 (1931).
  19. J. S. Schwinger, Phys. Rev. 82, 664 (1951).
  20. G. Breit and J. A. Wheeler, Phys. Rev. 46, 1087 (1934).
  21. H. R. Reiss, J. Math. Phys. (N.Y.) 3, 59 (1962).
  22. P. A. Zyla et al. (Particle Data Group), Prog. Theor. Exp. Phys. 2020, 083C01 (2020).
  23. P. Moskal, A. Gajos, M. Mohammed et al., Nat. Commun. 12, 5658 (2021).
  24. C. T. L. Smeenk, L. Arissian, B. Zhou, A. Mysyrowicz, D. M. Villeneuve, A. Staudte, and P. B. Corkum, Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 193002 (2011).
  25. S. Chelkowski, A. D. Bandrauk, and P. B. Corkum, Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 263005 (2014).
  26. M. J. Seaton, J. Phys. B 28, 3185 (1995).
  27. C. P. Ridgers, C. S. Brady, R. Duclous, J. G. Kirk, K. Bennett, T. D. Arber, A. P. L. Robinson, and A. R. Bell, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 165006 (2012).
  28. D. Seipt and A. G. R. Thomas, Phys. Plasmas 30, 093102 (2023).
  29. A. Gorlach, O. Neufeld, N. Rivera, O. Cohen, and I. Kaminer, Nat. Commun. 11, 4598 (2020).
  30. F. L. Li, Y.-Y. Chen, K. Z. Hatsagortsyan, and C. H. Keitel, Phys. Rev. Lett. 128, 174801 (2022).
  31. D. Seipt and B. King, Phys. Rev. A 102, 052805 (2020).
  32. S. M. Schmidt, D. Blaschke, G. Ropke, S. A. Smolyansky, A. V. Prozorkevich, and V. D. Toneev, Int. J. Mod. Phys. E 07, 709 (1998).
  33. Y. Kluger, J. M. Eisenberg, B. Svetitsky, F. Cooper, and E. Mottola, Phys. Rev. D 45, 4659 (1992).
  34. R. Alkofer, M. B. Hecht, C. D. Roberts, S. M. Schmidt, and D. V. Vinnik, Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 193902 (2001).
  35. C. Harvey, T. Heinzl, A. Ilderton, and M. Marklund, Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 100402 (2012).
  36. A. Blinne and E. Strobel, Phys. Rev. D 93, 025014 (2016).
  37. M. J. A. Jansen, J. Z. Kamiński, K. Krajewska, and C. Müller, Phys. Rev. D 94, 013010 (2016).
  38. S. Villalba-Chavez and C. Muller, Phys. Lett. B 718, 992 (2013).
  39. A. Golub, S. Villalba-Chávez, and C. Müller, Phys. Rev. D 103, 096002 (2021).
  40. C. Kohlfürst, Phys. Rev. D 99, 096017 (2019).
  41. I. A. Aleksandrov and A. Kudlis, Phys. Rev. D 110, L011901 (2024).
  42. See Supplemental Material at http://link.aps.org/supplemental/10.1103/PhysRevD.110.L111903 for further details on the Heisenberg-Wigner formalism, the field model, further technical information, and additional figures based on these generated data are also displayed, which includes Refs. [43–59].
  43. G. Baym and L. P. Kadanoff, Phys. Rev. 124, 287 (1961).
  44. L. Keldysh, Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 47, 1515 (1964) [Sov. Phys. JETP 20, 1018 (1965)], http://www.jetp.ras.ru/cgi-bin/dn/e_020_04_1018.pdf.
  45. E. A. Calzetta and B. L. B. Hu, Nonequilibrium Quantum Field Theory (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, 2009), 10.1017/9781009290036.
  46. J. Berges, AIP Conf. Proc. 739, 3 (2005).
  47. J. Rammer, Quantum Field Theory of Non-Equilibrium States (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, 2009).
  48. J. Weinbub and D. K. Ferry, Appl. Phys. Rev. 5, 041104 (2018).
  49. C. Kohlfürst, arXiv:2212.06057.
  50. C. Kohlfürst, N. Ahmadiniaz, J. Oertel, and R. Schützhold, Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 241801 (2022).
  51. F. J. Belinfante, Physica 7, 449 (1940).
  52. R. Dabrowski and G. V. Dunne, Phys. Rev. D 94, 065005 (2016).
  53. A. M. Fedotov, E. G. Gelfer, K. Yu. Korolev, and S. A. Smolyansky, Phys. Rev. D 83, 025011 (2011).
  54. C. K. Dumlu, Phys. Rev. D 79, 065027 (2009).
  55. V. S. Popov, Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 62, 1248 (1972) [Sov. Phys. JETP 35, 659 (1972)], http://jetp.ras.ru/cgi-bin/dn/e_035_04_0659.pdf.
  56. N. B. Narozhnyi and A. I. Nikishov, Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 65, 862 (1973) [Sov. Phys. JETP 38, 427 (1974)], http://www.jetp.ras.ru/cgi-bin/dn/e_038_03_0427.pdf.
  57. M. Marklund and G. Brodin, Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 025001 (2007).
  58. D. Seipt, C. P. Ridgers, D. Del Sorbo, and A. G. R. Thomas, New J. Phys. 23, 053025 (2021).
  59. C. Kohlfürst, Strong-field quantum electrodynamics in and out-of equilibrium, habilitation thesis, TU Dresden, 2024.
  60. S. P. Gavrilov and D. M. Gitman, Phys. Rev. D 53, 7162 (1996).
  61. F. Gelis and N. Tanji, Prog. Part. Nucl. Phys. 87, 1 (2016).
  62. S. Mrowczynski and U. W. Heinz, Ann. Phys. (N.Y.) 229, 1 (1994).
  63. D. N. Zubarev, Sov. Phys. Usp. 3, 320 (1960).
  64. P. Zhuang and U. Heinz, Ann. Phys. (N.Y.) 245, 311 (1996).
  65. D. Vasak, M. Gyulassy, and H. T. Elze, Ann. Phys. (N.Y.) 173, 462 (1987).
  66. O. T. Serimaa, J. Javanainen, and S. Varró, Phys. Rev. A 33, 2913 (1986).
  67. I. Bialynicki-Birula, P. Górnicki, and J. Rafelski, Phys. Rev. D 44, 1825 (1991).
  68. S. Ochs and U. Heinz, Ann. Phys. (N.Y.) 266, 351 (1998).
  69. P. Zhuang and U. Heinz, Phys. Rev. D 57, 6525 (1998).
  70. A. Ilderton, Phys. Rev. D 105, 016021 (2022).
  71. M. Diez, R. Alkofer, and C. Kohlfürst, Phys. Lett. B 844, 138063 (2023).
  72. C. Gong, Q. Su, and R. Grobe, Phys. Rev. A 109, 013102 (2024).
  73. C. A. Mancuso, D. D. Hickstein et al., Phys. Rev. A 91, 031402(R) (2015).
  74. E. Brezin and C. Itzykson, Phys. Rev. D 2, 1191 (1970).
  75. A. Blinne and H. Gies, Phys. Rev. D 89, 085001 (2014).
  76. I. Akal, S. Villalba-Chávez, and C. Müller, Phys. Rev. D 90, 113004 (2014).
  77. A. Otto, D. Seipt, D. Blaschke, B. Kämpfer, and S. A. Smolyansky, Phys. Lett. B 740, 335 (2015).
  78. E. Strobel and S.-S. Xue, Phys. Rev. D 91, 045016 (2015).
  79. M. Ruf, G. R. Mocken, C. Müller, K. Z. Hatsagortsyan, and C. H. Keitel, Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 080402 (2009).
  80. I. A. Aleksandrov, G. Plunien, and V. M. Shabaev, Phys. Rev. D 94, 065024 (2016).
  81. Q. Z. Lv, S. Dong, Y. T. Li, Z. M. Sheng, Q. Su, and R. Grobe, Phys. Rev. A 97, 022515 (2018).
  82. P.-L. He, D. Lao, and F. He, Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 163203 (2017).
  83. K. L. Reid, Annu. Rev. Phys. Chem. 54, 397 (2003).
  84. C. N. Yang, Phys. Rev. 74, 764 (1948).
  85. M. Ilchen, N. Douguet, T. Mazza et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 013002 (2017).
  86. K. Krajewska and J. Z. Kaminski, J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 594, 012024 (2015).
  87. I. A. Aleksandrov and C. Kohlfürst, Phys. Rev. D 101, 096009 (2020).
  88. A. I. Nikishov and V. I. Ritus, Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 52, 1707 (1967) [Sov. Phys. JETP 25, 1135 (1967)], http://www.jetp.ras.ru/cgi-bin/dn/e_025_06_1135.pdf.
  89. V. I. Ritus, J. Russ. Laser Res. 6, 497 (1985).
  90. V. P. Yakovlev, Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 49, 318 (1965) [Sov. Phys. JETP 22, 223 (1966)].
  91. M. H. Mittleman, Phys. Rev. A 35, 4624 (1987).
  92. F. Karbstein, A. Blinne, H. Gies, and M. Zepf, Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 091802 (2019).
  93. Q. Zhao, L. Tang, F. Wan et al., Phys. Rev. D 105, L071902 (2022).
  94. X. Ribeyre, E. d’Humières, O. Jansen, S. Jequier, V. T. Tikhonchuk, and M. Lobet, Phys. Rev. E 93, 013201 (2016).
  95. X.-L. Zhu, T.-P. Yu, Z.-M. Sheng, Y. Yin, I. C. E. Turcu, and A. Pukhov, Nat. Commun. 7, 13686 (2016).
  96. A. Mercuri-Baron, M. Grech, F. Niel, A. Grassi, M. Lobet, A. Di Piazza, and C. Riconda, New J. Phys. 23, 085006 (2021).
  97. T. G. Blackburn and B. King, Eur. Phys. J. C 82, 44 (2022).
  98. N. Mahlin, S. Villalba-Chávez, and C. Müller, Phys. Rev. D 108, 096023 (2023).
  99. B. Kettle, D. Hollatz, E. Gerstmayr, G. M. Samarin, A. Alejo, S. Astbury, C. Baird, S. Bohlen, M. Campbell, C. Colgan et al., New J. Phys. 23, 115006 (2021).
  100. F. C. Salgado, K. Grafenstein, A. Golub, A. Döpp, A. Eckey, D. Hollatz, C. Müller, A. Seidel, D. Seipt, S. Karsch et al., New J. Phys. 23, 105002 (2021).
  101. C. Kohlfürst, version 1, RODARE, 10.14278/rodare.3337 (2024).

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. D 110, L111903– Published 30 December, 2024
  • Received 1 February 2023
  • Accepted 2 December 2024
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

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.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation