Marklund Mattias, Brodin Gert, Stenflo Lennart
Department of Electromagnetics, Chalmers University of Technology, SE-412 96 Göteborg, Sweden.
Phys Rev Lett. 2003 Oct 17;91(16):163601. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.163601. Epub 2003 Oct 16.
The nonlinear interaction, due to quantum electrodynamical (QED) effects between an electromagnetic pulse and a radiation background, is investigated by combining the methods of radiation hydrodynamics with the QED theory for photon-photon scattering. For the case of a single coherent electromagnetic pulse, we obtain a Zakharov-like system, where the radiation pressure of the pulse acts as a driver of acoustic waves in the photon gas. For a sufficiently intense pulse and/or background energy density, there is focusing and the subsequent collapse of the pulse. The relevance of our results for various astrophysical applications are discussed.