53. Heidelberger Physik Graduiertentage

Quantum Electrodynamics in the High-Intensity Regime

 

A. Di Piazza 1, 2
 

1 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, United States

2 Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14623, United States

 

Quantum electrodynamics (QED) is a well-established physical theory and its predictions have been confirmed experimentally in various regimes and with extremely high accuracy. However, there are still areas of QED that deserve theoretical and experimental investigation, especially when physical processes occur in the presence of intense background electromagnetic fields.

 

In this series of lectures, I will first introduce the basic formalism of field quantization in order to present the fundamental features of QED in vacuum. Then, I will explain the extension of the theory to investigate quantum electrodynamical processes in the presence of a background electromagnetic field, which is so intense that its effects have to be taken into account exactly in the theory (strong-field QED). After focusing onto the case in which the background electromagnetic field is represented by a strong laser field, I will present examples of the most studied processes like nonlinear Compton scattering and nonlinear Breit-Wheeler pair production. I will conclude reporting on the most recent efforts to test strong-field QED experimentally.