Noncommutative spacetime and high-intensity probes

by Mattias Marklund (Umeå Universitet)

Wednesday 28 Oct 2009, 11:00 → 12:00 Europe/Stockholm

FA31

Within the next few years, laser facilities will allow access to the uncharted standard model sector of low energy, strong field QED (and possibly beyond), exploring nonlinear vacuum phenomena, nonperturbative pair creation through Schwinger-like mechanisms, and searches for new, light particles. Research into these topics has recently become an extremely active area. Here we discuss possible probes of the noncommutativity of spacetime, using noncommutative QED (NCQED). Noncommutativity appears in several guises in extensions of the standard model, either directly from noncommutative field theory, via space-time foaminess in loop quantum gravity schemes, or in emergent quantum mechanics. The consequences of combined noncommutative and strong-field effect for basic lepton-photon interactions is discussed.