ترغب بنشر مسار تعليمي؟ اضغط هنا

A laser-plasma platform for photon-photon physics

80   0   0.0 ( 0 )
 نشر من قبل Stuart Mangles
 تاريخ النشر 2021
  مجال البحث فيزياء
والبحث باللغة English




اسأل ChatGPT حول البحث

We describe a laser-plasma platform for photon-photon collision experiments to measure fundamental quantum electrodynamic processes such as the linear Breit-Wheeler process with real photons. The platform has been developed using the Gemini laser facility at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. A laser wakefield accelerator and a bremsstrahlung convertor are used to generate a collimated beam of photons with energies of hundreds of MeV, that collide with keV x-ray photons generated by a laser heated plasma target. To detect the pairs generated by the photon-photon collisions, a magnetic transport system has been developed which directs the pairs onto scintillation-based and hybrid silicon pixel single particle detectors. We present commissioning results from an experimental campaign using this laser-plasma platform for photon-photon physics, demonstrating successful generation of both photon sources, characterisation of the magnetic transport system and calibration of the single particle detectors, and discuss the feasibility of this platform for the observation of the Breit-Wheeler process. The design of the platform will also serve as the basis for the investigation of strong-field quantum electrodynamic processes such as the nonlinear Breit-Wheeler and the Trident process, or eventually, photon-photon scattering.



قيم البحث

اقرأ أيضاً

166 - C. Labaune 2013
The advent of high-intensity pulsed laser technology enables the generation of extreme states of matter under conditions that are far from thermal equilibrium. This in turn could enable different approaches to generating energy from nuclear fusion. R elaxing the equilibrium requirement could widen the range of isotopes used in fusion fuels permitting cleaner and less hazardous reactions that do not produce high energy neutrons. Here we propose and implement a means to drive fusion reactions between protons and boron-11 nuclei, by colliding a laser-accelerated proton beam with a laser-generated boron plasma. We report proton-boron reaction rates that are orders of magnitude higher than those reported previously. Beyond fusion, our approach demonstrates a new means for exploring low-energy nuclear reactions such as those that occur in astrophysical plasmas and related environments.
The expansion dynamics of hot electron-positron-photon plasma droplets is dealt with within relativistic hydrodynamics. Such droplets, envisaged to be created in future experiments by irradiating thin foils with counter-propagating ultra-intense lase r beams, are sources of flashes of gamma radiation. Warm electron-positron plasma droplets may be identified and characterized by a broadened 511 keV line.
Exact four-photon resonance of collinear planar laser pulses is known to be prohibited by the classical dispersion law of electromagnetic waves in plasma. We show here that the renormalization produced by an arbitrarily small relativistic electron no nlinearity removes this prohibition. The laser frequency shifts in collinear resonant four-photon scattering increase with laser intensities. For laser pulses of frequencies much greater than the electron plasma frequency, the shifts can also be much greater than the plasma frequency and even nearly double the input laser frequency at still small relativistic electron nonlinearities. This may enable broad range tunable lasers of very high frequencies and powers. Since the four-photon scattering does not rely on the Langmuir wave, which is very sensitive to plasma homogeneity, such lasers would also be able to operate at much larger plasma inhomogeneities than lasers based on stimulated Raman scattering in plasma.
Narrow bandwidth, high energy photon sources can be generated by Thomson scattering of laser light from energetic electrons, and detailed control of the interaction is needed to produce high quality sources. We present analytic calculations of the en ergy-angular spectra and photon yield that parametrize the influences of the electron and laser beam parameters to allow source design. These calculations, combined with numerical simulations, are applied to evaluate sources using conventional scattering in vacuum and methods for improving the source via laser waveguides or plasma channels. We show that the photon flux can be greatly increased by using a plasma channel to guide the laser during the interaction. Conversely, we show that to produce a given number of photons, the required laser energy can be reduced by an order of magnitude through the use of a plasma channel. In addition, we show that a plasma can be used as a compact beam dump, in which the electron beam is decelerated in a short distance, thereby greatly reducing radiation shielding. Realistic experimental errors such as transverse jitter are quantitatively shown to be tolerable. Examples of designs for sources capable of performing nuclear resonance fluorescence and photofission are provided.
We study theoretically the exchange of angular momentum between a photon beam and a plasma vortex, and demonstrate the possible excitation of photon angular momentum states in a plasma. This can be relevant to laboratory and space plasma diagnostics; radio astronomy self-calibration; and generating photon angular momentum beams. A static plasma perturbation with helical structure, and a rotating plasma vortex are studied in detail and a comparison between these two cases, and their relevance to the physical nature of photon OAM, is established.
التعليقات
جاري جلب التعليقات جاري جلب التعليقات
سجل دخول لتتمكن من متابعة معايير البحث التي قمت باختيارها
mircosoft-partner

هل ترغب بارسال اشعارات عن اخر التحديثات في شمرا-اكاديميا