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Nonlinear phase shift from photon-photon scattering in vacuum

Albert Ferrando·Humberto Michinel·Marcos Seco·Daniele Tommasini
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Abstract

We show that QED nonlinear effects imply a phase correction to the linear evolution of electromagnetic waves in vacuum. We provide explicit solutions of the modified Maxwell's equations for the propagation of a superposition of two plane waves, and calculate analytically and numerically the corresponding phase shift. This provides a new framework for the search of all-optical signatures of photon-photon scattering in vacuum. In particular, we propose an experiment for measuring the phase shift in projected high-power laser facilities.

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Albert Ferrando, Humberto Michinel, Marcos Seco, Daniele Tommasini. 2007-10-15. Nonlinear phase shift from photon-photon scattering in vacuum. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.99.150404

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