Discovery of higher-order quantum electrodynamics effect for the vacuum pair production

The higher-order quantum electrodynamics (QED) effect for vacuum pair production has been searched without success since 1954. In this paper, we show that the combined world-wide data of lepton pair vacuum production is about 20% smaller than the latest lowest order QED calculation with a 5.2 sigma-level of significance and is consistent with the corresponding higher-order QED result. We claim the discovery of higher-order effect for the QED pair production, which settles the dust of previous debates for several decades. The verification of higher-order QED effect is a fundamental scientific problem, which is an important milestone towards the nonperturbative and nonlinear regime of QED vacuum.

Automated summary

This paper demonstrates the discovery of higher-order effect for QED pair production by comparing global data, settling debates that have persisted for decades. This verification is a crucial milestone in advancing towards the nonperturbative and nonlinear regime of QED vacuum.