We present a 3+1 formulation of the light modes in nonlinear electrodynamics described by Plebanski-type Lagrangians,which include post-Maxwellian,Born-Infeld,ModMax,and Heisenberg-Euler-Schwinger QED Lagrangians.In n...We present a 3+1 formulation of the light modes in nonlinear electrodynamics described by Plebanski-type Lagrangians,which include post-Maxwellian,Born-Infeld,ModMax,and Heisenberg-Euler-Schwinger QED Lagrangians.In nonlinear electrodynamics,strong electromagnetic fields modify the vacuum such that it acquires optical properties.Such a field-modified vacuum can possess electric permittivity,magnetic permeability,and a magneto-electric response,inducing novel phenomena such as vacuum birefringence.By exploiting the mathematical structures of Plebanski-type Lagrangians,we establish a streamlined procedure and explicit formulas to determine light modes,i.e.,refractive indices and polarization vectors for a given propagation direction.We also work out the light modes of the various Lagrangians for an arbitrarily strong magnetic field.The 3+1 formulation advanced in this paper has direct applications to the current vacuum birefringence research:terrestrial experiments using permanent magnets/ultra-intense lasers for the subcritical regime and astrophysical observation of X-rays from highly magnetized neutron stars for the near-critical and supercritical regimes.展开更多
基金supported by the Ultrashort Quantum Beam Facility operation program(Grant No.140011)through APRI,GISTalso by the Institute of Basic Science(Grant No.IBSR038-D1).
文摘We present a 3+1 formulation of the light modes in nonlinear electrodynamics described by Plebanski-type Lagrangians,which include post-Maxwellian,Born-Infeld,ModMax,and Heisenberg-Euler-Schwinger QED Lagrangians.In nonlinear electrodynamics,strong electromagnetic fields modify the vacuum such that it acquires optical properties.Such a field-modified vacuum can possess electric permittivity,magnetic permeability,and a magneto-electric response,inducing novel phenomena such as vacuum birefringence.By exploiting the mathematical structures of Plebanski-type Lagrangians,we establish a streamlined procedure and explicit formulas to determine light modes,i.e.,refractive indices and polarization vectors for a given propagation direction.We also work out the light modes of the various Lagrangians for an arbitrarily strong magnetic field.The 3+1 formulation advanced in this paper has direct applications to the current vacuum birefringence research:terrestrial experiments using permanent magnets/ultra-intense lasers for the subcritical regime and astrophysical observation of X-rays from highly magnetized neutron stars for the near-critical and supercritical regimes.
