Abstract

Converging cylindrical electromagnetic fields in vacuum have been shown (Zababakhin and Nechaev Sov Phys JETP 6:345, 1958) to exhibit amplitude “cumulation”. It was found that the amplitude of self-similar waves increases without bounds at finite distances from the axis on the front of the fields reflected from the cylindrical axis. In the present paper, we propose to exploit this cylindrical cumulation process as a possible new path towards the generation of ultra-strong electromagnetic fields where nonlinear quantum electrodynamics (QED) effects come into play. We show that these effects, as described in the long wave-length limit within the framework of the Euler Heisenberg Lagrangian, induce a radius-dependent reduction of the propagation speed of the cumulation front. Furthermore, we compute the \(e^+{-}e^-\) pair production rate at the cumulation front and show that the total number of pairs that are generated scales as the sixth power of the field amplitude.

Graphical Abstract

中文翻译：

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圆柱“累积”前沿的非线性电动力学

摘要

真空中会聚的圆柱电磁场已显示出来（Zababakhin和Nechaev Sov Phys JETP 6：345，1958年），显示出幅度“累积”。已发现自相似波的振幅在从圆柱轴反射的场的前部距轴的有限距离处无限增大。在本文中，我们建议利用这种圆柱形累积过程作为产生超强电磁场的一种可能的新途径，其中将发挥非线性量子电动力学（QED）效应。我们表明，这些影响，如在Euler Heisenberg Lagrangian框架内的长波长限制中所述，会引起累积前沿的传播速度的半径依赖性减小。此外，我们计算\（e ^ + {-} e ^-\） 累积前沿的成对生产率，表明所产生的成对总数与场振幅的六次方成正比。

图形概要