Abstract
There are many situations in which a strong electromagnetic field may be approximated as a fixed background. Going beyond this approximation, i.e. accounting for the back-reaction of quantum process on the field, is however challenging. Here we develop an approach to this problem which is a straightforward extension of background field methods. The approach follows from the observation that scattering in an on-shell background is equivalent to scattering between coherent states; we show that by deforming these states one can model back-reaction. Focussing on intense laser-matter interactions, we provide examples which model beam depletion and, furthermore, introduce an extremisation principle with which to determine the level of depletion in a given scattering process
DOI
10.1103/PhysRevD.97.016007
Publication Date
2018-01-01
Publication Title
Physical Review D
Volume
97
Issue
1
Publisher
American Physical Society (APS)
ISSN
2470-0029
Embargo Period
2024-11-22
Recommended Citation
Ilderton, A., & Seipt, D. (2018) 'Backreaction on background fields: A coherent state approach', Physical Review D, 97(1). American Physical Society (APS): Available at: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.97.016007
