Coherent combs of anti-matter from nonlinear electron-positron pair creation

Abstract

Electron-positron pair creation in collisions of a modulated laser pulse with a high-energy photon (nonlinear Breit-Wheeler process) is studied by means of strong-field quantum electrodynamics. It is shown that the driving pulse modulations lead to appearance of comb structures in the energy spectra of produced positrons (electrons). It is demonstrated that these combs result from a coherent enhancement of probability amplitudes of pair creation from different modulations of the laser pulse. Thus, resembling the Young-double slit experiment for anti-matter (matter) waves.

Comments: 9 pages, 5 figures