Prospects for statistical tests of strong-field quantum electrodynamics with high-intensity lasers.*

Colliding high-intensity lasers pulses with high-energy electrons can provide large values of the quantum nonlinearity parameter χ and can thus trigger processes described by strong-field quantum electrodynamics (SFQED) [1]. By measuring the interaction there is a possibility to test existing results from Furry picture perturbation theory in SFQED as well as propelling future theoretical developments at large χ. However, a challenging objective is to retrieve information from the experiments due to the probabilistic interaction nature, dominating low-χ events and spatiotemporal fluctuations of the collision setup that can only be assessed with limited diagnostics. I will present the capabilities of employing approximate Bayesian computation (ABC) [2] to gather statistical inferences based on the results from repeated experiments, independent of the collision parameter uncertainites. I will analyze a proof-by-principle case study that demonstrates the methodology in which the coefficient related to the effective electron mass [3] from coupling with the strong-field environment is inferred.

[1] Fedotov, A et al. (2022). Advances in QED with intense background fields. arXiv preprint arXiv:2203.00019.

[2] Beaumont, M. A et al. (2002). Approximate Bayesian computation in population genetics. Genetics, 162(4), 2025-2035.

[3] Yakimenko, V et al. (2019). Prospect of studying nonperturbative QED with beam-beam collisions. Physical review letters, 122(19), 190404.