2015/11/30 by Anton Wöllert, Heiko Bauke, Christoph H. Keitel
Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic and Molecular Physics #Atomic physics #Electron #Electron pair #Field (mathematics) #Helicity #Laser-Matter Interactions and Applications #Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics #Observable #Pair production #Physics #Positron #Quantum mechanics #Spin (aerodynamics) #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2016.07.037
published as Physics Letters B, vol. 760, pages 552-557 (2016)
openalex publication_date 2016/07/20 · arxiv created 2016/07/25 · arxiv updated 2016/07/26 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Ultra strong electromagnetic fields can lead to spontaneous creation of single or multiple electron–positron pairs. A quantum field theoretical treatment of the pair creation process combined with numerical methods provides a description of the fermionic quantum field state, from which all observables of the multiple electron–positron pairs can be inferred. This allows to study the complex multi-particle dynamics of electron–positron pair creation in-depth, including multi-pair statistics as well as momentum distributions and spin. To illustrate the potential benefit of this approach, it is applied to the intermediate regime of pair creation between nonperturbative Schwinger pair creation and perturbative multiphoton pair creation where the creation of multi-pair states becomes nonnegligible but cascades do not yet set in. Furthermore, it is demonstrated how spin and helicity of the created electrons and positrons are affected by the polarization of the counterpropagating laser fields , which induce the creation of electron–positron pairs.