Photon polarization in light-by-light scattering: Finite size effects
Journal article, 2014

We derive a simple expression for the photon helicity and polarization-flip probabilities in arbitrary background fields, in the low-energy regime. Taking the background to model a focused laser beam, we study the impact of pulse shape and collision geometry on the probabilities and on ellipticity signals of vacuum birefringence. We find that models which do not account for pulse duration can overestimate all signals in near head-on collisions by up to an order of magnitude. Taking pulse duration into account, the flip probability becomes relatively insensitive to both angular incidence and the fine details of the pulse structure.

Author

V. Dinu

T. Heinzl

Antony Ilderton

Chalmers, Applied Physics, Condensed Matter Theory

Mattias Marklund

Chalmers, Applied Physics, Condensed Matter Theory

Greger Torgrimsson

Chalmers, Applied Physics, Condensed Matter Theory

Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology

24700010 (ISSN) 24700029 (eISSN)

Vol. 90 4 045025

Subject Categories

Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology

DOI

10.1103/PhysRevD.90.045025

More information

Latest update

4/5/2022 6