Mimicking Interacting Relativistic Theories with Stationary Pulses of Light

One of the most well known relativistic field theory models is the Thirring model. Its realization can demonstrate the famous prediction for the renormalization of mass due to interactions. However, experimental verification of the latter requires complex accelerator experiments whereas analytical solutions of the model can be extremely cumbersome to obtain. In this work, following Feynman's original proposal, we propose an alternative quantum system as a simulator of the Thirring model dynamics. Here, the relativistic particles are mimicked, counterintuitively, by polarized photons in a quantum nonlinear medium. We show that the entire set of regimes of the Thirring model-bosonic or fermionic, and massless or massive-can be faithfully reproduced using coherent light trapping techniques. The correlation functions of the model can be extracted by simple probing of the coherence functions of the output light using standard optical techniques. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.100502