Quantum Electron Self-Interaction in a Strong Laser Field

The quantum state of an electron in a strong laser field is altered if the interaction of the electron with its own electromagnetic field is taken into account. Starting from the Schwinger-Dirac equation, we determine the states of an electron in a plane-wave field with inclusion, at leading order, of its electromagnetic self-interaction. On the one hand, the electron states show a pure quantum contribution to the electron quasimomentum, conceptually different from the conventional classical one arising from the quiver motion of the electron. On the other hand, the electron self-interaction induces a distinct dynamics of the electron spin, whose effects are shown to be measurable in principle with available technology.

Figure 1

Leading-order Feynman diagram of the mass operator in an external plane-wave field. The double solid line indicates the electron propagator in the plane wave (Volkov propagator) and the wiggly line a nonlaser photon. The vertical dashed line links the mass operator to the nonlinear Compton scattering diagram.

Figure 2

Asymmetry $\mathcal{A}$ for numerical parameters given in the text below Eq. (14).