Electromagnetic solitons in quantum vacuum

Year: 2020

Authors: Bulanov S. V; Sasorov P. V; Pegoraro F.; Kadlecova H.; Bulanov S. S.; Esirkepov T. Zh; Rosanov N. N.; Korn G.

Autors Affiliation: Institute of Physics of the ASCR, ELI-Beamlines Project, Na Slovance 2, Prague, 18221, Czech Republic; National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology (QST), Kansai Photon Science Institute, 8-1-7 Umemidai, Kizugawa, Kyoto, 619-0215, Japan; Prokhorov General Physics Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Vavilov Str. 38, Moscow, 119991, Russian Federation1; Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics, Moscow, 125047, Russian Federation; Enrico Fermi Department of Physics, University of Pisa, Italy; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, 94720, CA, United States; Vavilov State Optical Institute, Kadetskaya liniya 5/2, Saint-Petersburg, 199053, Russian Federation; University ITMO, Kronverkskii prospect 49, Saint-Petersburg, 197101, Russian Federation; Ioffe Physical Technical Institute, Politekhnicheskaya ul. 26, Saint-Petersburg, 194021, Russian Federation; National Research Council, National Institute of Optics, via G. Moruzzi 1, Pisa, 56124, Italy

Abstract: In the limit of extremely intense electromagnetic fields the Maxwell equations are modified due to the photon-photon scattering that makes the vacuum refraction index depend on the field amplitude. In the presence of electromagnetic waves with small but finite wave numbers the vacuum behaves as a dispersive medium. We show that the interplay between the vacuum polarization and the nonlinear effects in the interaction of counter-propagating electromagnetic waves can result in the formation of Kadomtsev-Petviashvily solitons and, in one-dimension configuration, of Korteveg-de-Vries type solitons that can propagate over a large distance without changing their shape.

Journal/Review: PHYSICAL REVIEW D

Volume: 101 (1)      Pages from: 016016  to:

More Information: The work is supported by the project High Field Initiative (CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/15_003/0000449) from the European Regional Development Fund, by the Program of Russian Academy of Sciences “Mathematics and Nonlinear Dynamics”. H. K. was supported by the fellowship (award) Czech edition of L´Oreal UNESCO For Women In Science 2019. S. S. B. acknowledges support from the Office of Science of the U.S. DOE under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231.
KeyWords: Laser plasma interaction
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.101.016016