Revealing signals of higher-order nonlinear showers in particle-laser collisions

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Abstract
Several high power laser facilities are reaching field strengths where leading order strong-field quantum electrodynamical (QED) processes can be measured in the non-perturbative regime for the first time. At very high, as yet unobtainable in the laboratory, field strengths, the contribution of higher-order processes is predicted to dominate, implying a breakdown of current calculational methods. Focusing on nonlinear showers and considering currently available experimental parameters, we find that if the momentum spectrum of the \emph{incident} particles is well known, asymmetries in the \emph{outgoing} particle spectrum may provide a useful signature of higher orders of nonlinear phototrident, trident and Compton scattering. These signatures could be used by experiment to test how accurate the current calculational framework is when applied to strong-field QED at higher orders.
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