Electromagnetic solitons in quantum vacuum
S. V. Bulanov, P. V. Sasorov, Ф. Пегораро, Hedvika Kadlecová, S. S. Bulanov, T. Zh. Esirkepov, N. N. Rosanov, G. Korn
Abstract
In the limit of extremely intense electromagnetic fields the Maxwell equations are modified due to the photon-photon scattering that makes the vacuum refraction index depend on the field amplitude. In the presence of electromagnetic waves with small but finite wave numbers the vacuum behaves as a dispersive medium. We show that the interplay between the vacuum polarization and the nonlinear effects in the interaction of counter-propagating electromagnetic waves can result in the formation of Kadomtsev-Petviashvily solitons and, in one-dimension configuration, of Korteveg-de-Vries type solitons that can propagate over a large distance without changing their shape.