Nonlinear electrodynamics without birefringence

Abstract All solutions of the no-birefringence conditions for nonlinear electrodynamics are found. In addition to the known Born-Infeld and Plebanski cases, we find a “reverse Born-Infeld” case, which has a limit to Plebanski, and an “extreme-Born-Infeld” case, which arises as a Lagrangian constrain...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jorge G. Russo, Paul K. Townsend
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SpringerOpen 2023-01-01
Series:Journal of High Energy Physics
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP01(2023)039
Description
Summary:Abstract All solutions of the no-birefringence conditions for nonlinear electrodynamics are found. In addition to the known Born-Infeld and Plebanski cases, we find a “reverse Born-Infeld” case, which has a limit to Plebanski, and an “extreme-Born-Infeld” case, which arises as a Lagrangian constraint. Only Born-Infeld has a weak-field limit, and only Born-Infeld and extreme-Born-Infeld avoid superluminal propagation in constant electromagnetic backgrounds, but all cases have a conformal strong-field limit that coincides with the strong-field limit of Born-Infeld found by Bialynicki-Birula.
ISSN:1029-8479