Quantum vacuum signatures in multi-color laser pulse collisions

Abstract: Quantum vacuum fluctuations give rise to effective non-linear interactions between electromagnetic fields. A prominent signature of quantum vacuum nonlinearities driven by macroscopic fields are signal photons differing in characteristic properties such as frequency, propagation direction and polarization from the driving fields. We devise a strategy for the efficient tracing of the various vacuum-fluctuation-mediated interaction processes in order to identify the most prospective signal photon channels. As an example, we study the collision of up to four optical laser pulses and pay attention to sum and difference frequency generation. We demonstrate how this information can be used to enhance the signal photon yield in laser pulse collisions for a given total laser energy.