Abstract
Ultrafast strong-field laser--plasma physics is shown to offer a promising framework for relativistic nonlinear quantum electrodynamics (QED). As one of its key advantages, this approach to relativistic nonlinear QED does not require an external beam of relativistic particles. Instead, high-energy electrons are produced in this setting as a part of ultrafast strong-field laser--plasma interactions. An intense ultrashort laser pulse generates and accelerates dense electron bunches to relativistic energies, giving rise to photon-pair emission confined to the nanometer scale in space and the attosecond scale in time. As a lowest-order nonlinear QED process, relativistic electrons in laser-driven plasmas are shown to give rise to attosecond bursts of two-photon emission, providing an ultrabroadband source of correlated photon pairs. As a physically insightful estimate, the rate of this two-photon emission is expressed via a product α² γ ω_turn, where α is the fine-structure constant, γ is the Lorentz factor, and ω_turn is the local relativistic curvature frequency. Photon pairs with strongest correlations, providing a resource for photon entanglement, are emitted at a much lower rate, estimated as α² γ² ω_turn E_⊥ /E_S, where E_⊥ is the laser electromagnetic field, determining the transverse Lorentz force, and E_S is the Schwinger critical field. Our study offers a clear guidance on how quantum aspects of laser-driven relativistic plasma electrodynamics can be isolated from their classical counterparts, enabling a physically justifiable approach to the analysis of nonlinear QED phenomena in complex laser--plasma interactions driven by ultrashort high-intensity laser pulses.