COLLISION OF NONLINEAR ELECTROMAGNETIC-WAVES

I present a solution of the Einstein-Born-Infeld equations which can b e interpreted as the collision of two plane waves supporting nonlinear electromagnetic field. The spacetime has a nonvanishing conformal cur vature given in terms of the nonlinear parameter b, associated with th e vacuum polarization. In the linear limit (b-->(infinity)) it reduces to the Bell-Szekeres solution which describes the collision of two sh ock waves in Maxwell theory.