Theoretical investigation of the highly nonlinear regime of quantum electrodynamics using laser-matter and laser-plasma interactions

通过将高强度的光学激光脉冲与激光等离子体加速器中可获得的超相对论性电子碰撞，当代技术可以进入量子电动力学（QED）的关键领域。此外，强场QED效应，如量子辐射反应、大量电子-正电子对的产生和QED级联，将影响即将在极端光基础设施（ELI）等设施进行的激光物质和激光等离子体实验。因此，基于激光的强场实验将在“强度前沿”测试粒子物理的标准模型，这是对传统粒子对撞机实验在“能量前沿”寻找新粒子的补充。在集体等离子体效应和激光场耗尽变得重要的情况下，在经典电动力学和QED击穿的微扰处理方面，采用QED细胞内粒子（PIC）方法进行数值计算。在这里，我们建议研究最先进的QED- pic计算的有效性，考虑迄今为止尚未考虑到的新现象，并分析可以探索等离子体物理与高度非线性QED过程之间相互作用的新型实验。

By colliding highly intense optical laser pulses with ultra relativistic electrons, obtainable from laser-plasma accelerators, the critical field of quantum electrodynamics (QED) becomes accessible with contemporary technology. Moreover, strong-field QED effects like quantum radiation reaction, prolific electron-positron pair production, and QED cascades will influence laser-matter and laser-plasma experiments at upcoming facilities like the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI). Laser-based strong-field experiments will therefore test the standard model of particle physics at the ``intensity frontier'', which is complementary to searches for new particles at the ``energy frontier'' with conventional particle collider experiments. In the regime where on the one hand collective plasma effects and the depletion of the laser field become important and on the other classical electrodynamics and also the perturbative treatment of QED break down, the QED particle-in-cell (PIC) approach is used for numerical calculations. Here, we suggest to investigate the validity of state-of-the-art QED-PIC calculations, to consider new phenomena not hitherto taken into account, and to analyze novel types of experiments which could probe the interplay between plasma physics and highly nonlinear QED processes.