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Register a new userReaching supercritical field strengths with intense lasers
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It is conjectured that all perturbative approaches to quantum electrodynamics (QED) break down in the collision of a high-energy electron beam with an intense laser, when the laser fields are boosted to `supercritical strengths far greater than the critical field of QED. As field strengths increase toward this regime, cascades of photon emission and electron-positron pair creation are expected, as well as the onset of substantial radiative corrections. Here we identify the important role played by the collision angle in mitigating energy losses to photon emission that would otherwise prevent the electrons reaching the supercritical regime. We show that a collision between an electron beam with energy in the tens of GeV and a laser pulse of intensity $10^{24}~text{W}text{cm}^{-2}$ at oblique, or even normal, incidence is a viable platform for studying the breakdown of perturbative strong-field QED. Our results have implications for the design of near-term experiments as they predict that certain quantum effects are enhanced at oblique incidence.
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We present a new magnetic field generation mechanism in underdense plasmas driven by the beating of two, co-propagating, Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) orbital angular momentum (OAM) laser pulses with different frequencies and also different twist indices. The resulting twisted ponderomotive force drives up an electron plasma wave with a helical rotating structure. To second order, there is a nonlinear rotating current leading to the onset of an intense, static axial magnetic field, which persists over a long time in the plasma (ps scale) after the laser pulses have passed by. The results are confirmed in three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations and also theoretical analysis. For the case of 300 fs duration, 3.8x10^17 W/cm^2 peak laser intensity we observe magnetic field of up to 0.4 MG. This new method of magnetic field creation may find applications in charged beam collimation and controlled fusion.
We demonstrate the potential of X-ray free-electron lasers (XFEL) to advancethe understanding of complex plasma dynamics by allowing for the first time nanometer and femtosecond resolution at the same time in plasma diagnostics. Plasma phenomena on such short timescales are of high relevance for many fields of physics, in particular in the ultra-intense ultra-short laser interaction with matter. Highly relevant yet only partially understood phenomena may become directly accessible in experiment. These include relativistic laser absorption at solid targets, creation of energetic electrons and electron transport in warm dense matter, including the seeding and development of surface and beam instabilities, ambipolar expansion, shock formation, and dynamics at the surfaces or at buried layers. We demonstrate the potentials of XFEL plasma probing for high power laser matter interactions using exemplary the small angle X-ray scattering technique, focusing on general considerations for XFEL probing.
Since the invention of chirped pulse amplification, which was recognized by a Nobel prize in physics in 2018, there has been a continuing increase in available laser intensity. Combined with advances in our understanding of the kinetics of relativistic plasma, studies of laser-plasma interactions are entering a new regime where the physics of relativistic plasmas is strongly affected by strong-field quantum electrodynamics (QED) processes, including hard photon emission and electron-positron ($e^+$-$e^-$) pair production. This coupling of quantum emission processes and relativistic collective particle dynamics can result in dramatically new plasma physics phenomena, such as the generation of dense $e^+$-$e^-$ pair plasma from near vacuum, complete laser energy absorption by QED processes or the stopping of an ultrarelativistic electron beam, which could penetrate a cm of lead, by a hairs breadth of laser light. In addition to being of fundamental interest, it is crucial to study this new regime to understand the next generation of ultra-high intensity laser-matter experiments and their resulting applications, such as high energy ion, electron, positron, and photon sources for fundamental physics studies, medical radiotherapy, and next generation radiography for homeland security and industry.
Here, we demonstrate the radiative polarization of high-energy electron beams in collisions with ultrashort pulsed bi-chromatic laser fields. Employing a Boltzmann kinetic approach for the electron distribution allows us to simulate the beam polarization over a wide range of parameters and determine the optimum conditions for maximum radiative polarization. Those results are contrasted with a Monte-Carlo algorithm where photon emission and associated spin effects are treated fully quantum mechanically using spin-dependent photon emission rates. The latter method includes realistic focusing laser fields, which allows us to simulate a near-term experimentally feasible scenario of a 8 GeV electron beam scattering from a 1 PW laser pulse and provide a measurement that would verify the ultrafast radiative polarization in high-intensity laser pulses that we predict. Aspects of spin dependent radiation reaction are also discussed, with spin polarization leading to a measurable (5%) splitting of the energies of spin-up and spin-down electrons.
The recoil associated with photon emission is key to the dynamics of ultrarelativistic electrons in strong electromagnetic fields, as are found in high-intensity laser-matter interactions and astrophysical environments such as neutron star magnetospheres. When the energy of the photon becomes comparable to that of the electron, it is necessary to use quantum electrodynamics (QED) to describe the dynamics accurately. However, computing the appropriate scattering matrix element from strong-field QED is not generally possible due to multiparticle effects and the complex structure of the electromagnetic fields. Therefore these interactions are treated semiclassically, coupling probabilistic emission events to classical electrodynamics using rates calculated in the locally constant field approximation. Here we provide comprehensive benchmarking of this approach against the exact QED calculation for nonlinear Compton scattering of electrons in an intense laser pulse. We find agreement at the percentage level between the photon spectra, as well as between the models predictions of absorption from the background field, for normalized amplitudes $a_0 > 5$. We discuss possible routes towards improved numerical methods and the implications of our results for the study of QED cascades.
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