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The standard Big Bang universe model is mainly based on linear interactions, except during exotic periods such as inflation. The purpose of the present proposal is to explore the effects, if any, of vacuum polarization in the very high energy density environment of the early universe. These conditions can be found today in astrophysical settings and may also be emulated in the laboratory using high intensity advanced lasers. Shortly after the Big Bang, there once existed a time when the energy density of the universe corresponded to a temperature in the range 10{sup 8} - 10{sup 9} K, sufficient to cause vacuum polarization effects. During this period, the nonlinear vacuum polarization may have had significant modifications on the propagation of radiation. Thus the thermal spectrum of the early universe may have been starkly non-Planckian. Measurements of the cosmic microwave background today show a spectrum relatively close to an ideal blackbody. Could the early universe have shown spectral deviations due to nonlinear vacuum effects? If so, is it possible to detect traces of those relic photons in the universe today? Found in galactic environments, compact objects such as blazars and magnetars can possess astronomically large energy densities that far exceed anythingmore » that can be created in the laboratory. Their field strengths are known to reach energy levels comparable to or surpassing the energy corresponding to the Schwinger critical field E {approx} 10{sup 18} V/m. Nonlinear vacuum effects become prominent under these conditions and have garnered much interest from the astronomical and theoretical physics communities. The effects of a nonlinear vacuum may be of crucial importance for our understanding of these objects. At energies of the order of the electron rest mass, the most important interactions are described by quantum electrodynamics (QED). It is predicted that nonlinear photon-photon interactions will occur at energies approaching the Schwinger critical field. The basic process is the appearance of vacuum polarization, or the creation of the virtual electron-positron pair by vacuum fluctuations, as shown in Fig.1. These quantum processes can be described by an effective field theory for the electromagnetic field where the effects of virtual processes appear as small corrections. First derived by Heisenberg and Euler, this theory describes the corrections to classical electromagnetic theory due to photon-photon scattering [1]. An overview of nonlinear vacuum effects as formulated through the Heisenberg-Euler Lagrangian can be found in [2].« less |
