Quantum vacuum nonlinearities in the all-optical regime

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Nonlinear self-interactions of light are a direct manifestation of the intricate properties of the quantum vacuum. They represent a demarcation from Maxwell's classical theory of the electromagnetic field, violating the superposition principle as a fundamental property of the classical vacuum.In the second funding period, this project investigates the consequences of the nonlinear nature of the quantum vacuum for specific self-interaction phenomena induced by focused laser fields. The goal is the identification and a comprehensive description of sufficiently simple and efficient experimental configurations that can serve as discovery experiments of these phenomena based on macroscopically controllable ultra-intense laser pulses.For this, the challenge of a quantitative treatment of virtual quantum processes in realistic laser pulses and the induced signatures dynamically in space and time has to be met. The project uses and further develops effective field theory methods, investigates general photonic observables of quantum electrodynamics (QED) in strong-field environments, and aims at accurate predictions from first principles and an adequate modeling of such experiments. Also questions of conceptual relevance for the high-intensity limit of the quantum field theory of light-matter interactions shall be addressed using modern renormalization flow techniques.On the method side, this involves the high-performance use and further development of numerical and simulational approaches, pioneered in the first funding period, for a quantitatively accurate description of the desired phenomena as well as a modeling of the classical background. On the conceptual side, the project further explores the structuralproperties and consistency of QED at highest intensities.