Abstract
Converging cylindrical electromagnetic fields in vacuum have been shown (Zababakhin and Nechaev Sov Phys JETP 6:345, 1958) to exhibit amplitude “cumulation”. It was found that the amplitude of self-similar waves increases without bounds at finite distances from the axis on the front of the fields reflected from the cylindrical axis. In the present paper, we propose to exploit this cylindrical cumulation process as a possible new path towards the generation of ultra-strong electromagnetic fields where nonlinear quantum electrodynamics (QED) effects come into play. We show that these effects, as described in the long wave-length limit within the framework of the Euler Heisenberg Lagrangian, induce a radius-dependent reduction of the propagation speed of the cumulation front. Furthermore, we compute the \(e^+{-}e^-\) pair production rate at the cumulation front and show that the total number of pairs that are generated scales as the sixth power of the field amplitude.
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Acknowledgements
F. Pegoraro acknowledges with gratitude years of lively scientific discussions with Prof. PL. Veltri. S.V.B. acknowledges the support by the project High Field Initiative (CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/15_003/0000449) from the European Regional Development Fund. F.P. would like to acknowledge the hospitality of the ELI-Beamlines Project, Na Slovance 2, 182 21 Prague, Czech Republic.
Funding
This work was supported in part by by the project High Field Initiative (CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/15 003/0000449) from the European Regional Development Fund.
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This paper is a peer-reviewed version of a contribution at the International Conference ‘Plasma Physics and Astrophysics up to 2020 and beyond’ organized by the Department of Physics of Università della Calabria in honor of Pierluigi Veltri’s 70th birthday and held October 7–8, 2019 at Università della Calabria, Rende (Italy).
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Pegoraro, F., Bulanov, S.V. Nonlinear electrodynamics at cylindrical “cumulation” fronts. Rend. Fis. Acc. Lincei 31, 303–313 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12210-020-00906-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12210-020-00906-w