Abstract
All solutions of the no-birefringence conditions for nonlinear electrodynamics are found. In addition to the known Born-Infeld and Plebanski cases, we find a “reverse Born-Infeld” case, which has a limit to Plebanski, and an “extreme-Born-Infeld” case, which arises as a Lagrangian constraint. Only Born-Infeld has a weak-field limit, and only Born-Infeld and extreme-Born-Infeld avoid superluminal propagation in constant electromagnetic backgrounds, but all cases have a conformal strong-field limit that coincides with the strong-field limit of Born-Infeld found by Bialynicki-Birula.
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Russo, J.G., Townsend, P.K. Nonlinear electrodynamics without birefringence. J. High Energ. Phys. 2023, 39 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP01(2023)039
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP01(2023)039