Fig. 6: Number of electron–positron pairs created by the three most important mechanisms.
From: Dominance of γ-γ electron-positron pair creation in a plasma driven by high-intensity lasers
The number of electron–positron pairs created by the linear, \({N}_{\,\text{lin}}^{\text{BW}\,}\), and nonlinear, \({N}_{\,\text{nonlin}}^{\text{BW}\,}\), Breit–Wheeler processes (green crosses and magenta markers, respectively), for the setup shown in Fig. 1, at given normalized laser amplitude a0 (and equivalent peak intensity I0). Error bars on the nonlinear results indicate statistical uncertainties (at one standard deviation): see text for details. The estimated background, electron–positron pairs produced by the Bethe–Heitler process, NBH, is shown by blue circles. The nonlinear Breit–Wheeler pair yield is calculated directly by the PIC code, whereas the linear Breit–Wheeler and Bethe–Heitler pair yields are obtained by post-processing, as described in Methods.
