This question is more about trying to feel the waters in our current abilities to compute (or roughly estimate) the refraction index of vacuum, specifically when high numbers of electromagnetic quanta of a given frequency ω occupy a spherical symmetric incoming wavefront modes eikrr2
I'm interested in intensities above the Schwinger limit. Do exist analytical or lattice QED estimates?
Why this is interesting?
Usually i try to make my questions as self-contained as possible, but i believe it might be interesting to others why i'm interested in nonlinear vacuum refraction indices, so here it goes:
Let's review what classical theory says about our ability to create micro black holes with electromagnetic radiation. Our sun produces about 1026 watts of power, so in principle in the future we could harness all that power. The question trying to be answered here is: is the energy output from Sol enough for a sufficiently technically advanced humanity to create micro black holes?
Let's suppose we focus a spherically symmetric beam of light in a single focal point with the purpose of condense enough energy to create a black hole, well, the Schwarzchild radius of a given flow of energy is
R=GEc4
substituing constants,
R=10−45E
Now, since this energy propagates electromagnetically as radiation, it needs to stay long enough inside the critical radius so that the black hole forms. If the (radial) refractive index inside a small enough region is n, then the light will stay inside the radius a time T
R=cTn
equating both terms we are left with an expression for the power that needs to be delivered in a spherical region in order to create a black hole
cTn=10−45E
1053n=ET=P
So, assuming a refractive index of vacuum of 1, it means that we require 1053 watts focused in a spherical region in order to create a black hole. This is 1027 more power than what would be available for a humanity that managed to create a Dyson shell around our sun!
But if the refractive index could be managed to be above 1030 before reaching the focus region, then that future humanity would have a chance to create such micro black holes
Even a less generous increase of the refractive index could be useful, if they could store the energy of the sun for a few years and then zapping it into an extremely brief 10−20 wide pulse, in a similar fashion as to how the National Ignition Facility achieves 500 TeraWatt pulses (by chirp-pulse compression)
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