Abstract
In classical electrodynamics, the Maxwell equations are linear in the fields, and there is no interaction of light with light. In quantum electrodynamics, however, photons can couple with each other via the production of virtual electron-positron pairs (Fig. 1) . Since the vacuum is now treated as a dielectric medium, it can become polarized by electric and magnetic fields. In this chapter, we discuss the quantum electrodynamics (QED) birefringence of the vacuum, the status of current efforts, and how an experiment utilizing femtosecond lasers may very well lead to the first direct observation of this effect.
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Lasers with similar specifications are already in existence in various universities and national laboratories around the world. One such system is under construction at Colorado State University, in the soft X-ray laser laboratory of Jorge Rocca.
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Lee, S.A., Fairbank, W.M. (2002). Measuring the Birefringence of the QED Vacuum. In: Figger, H., Zimmermann, C., Meschede, D. (eds) Laser Physics at the Limits. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-04897-9_19
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-04897-9_19
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