Particle-in-cell electromagnetic solver for QED polarization in super-strong magnetic fields approach

Abstract: Studies of super-strongly magnetized plasmas play a crucial role in astrophysics and laboratory experiments, demanding a better understanding of how quantum electrodynamic (QED) effects influence plasma behaviour. Previous theoretical works have shown that QED effects cause significant modifications to plasma behaviour around Magntars using analytical and semi-analytical calculations. In this work, we developed a numerical method that advances the QED vacuum polarization effects in the particle-in-cell (PIC) kinetic method by introducing a new field solver method of the non-linear Maxwell equations. We showed that the electromagnetic waves in simulations follow the analytical solutions well for the birefringence effects between the O- and X-mode polarized waves with increasing magnetic field intensity. This new QED-PIC simulation framework will be applied to model electromagnetic fields in magnetar magnetospheres.