Polarization of a probe laser beam due to nonlinear QED effects

Abstract

Nonlinear QED interactions induce different polarization properties on a given probe beam. We consider the polarization effects caused by the photon-photon interaction in laser experiments, when a laser beam propagates through a constant magnetic field or collides with another laser beam. We solve the quantum Boltzmann equation within the framework of the Euler-Heisenberg Lagrangian for both time-dependent and constant background field to explore the time evolution of the Stokes parameters Q, U, and V describing polarization. Assuming an initially linearly polarized probe laser beam, we also calculate the induced ellipticity and rotation of the polarization plane.