Schwinger

In the electron's reference frame, the laser intensity appeared to be about 50% of the Schwinger limit, triggering nonlinear QED phenomena.

In 1947 another eminent theorist, Julian Schwinger, worked out what was happening: the electron was being jostled by the photon.

The trio decided to approach the topic from an atypical angle by using equations from a related phenomenon known as the Schwinger effect.

Falcke and his team suggest that experiments could focus on observing the Schwinger effect, which also remains theoretical at this point, to potentially bolster their own claims.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from Brooklyn College in 1949 at 18, then went to Harvard, where he studied under Julian Schwinger, a Nobel Prize laureate.