QED effects in laser-plasma interactions

Thesis

It is possible to reach the radiation-reaction–dominated regime in today’s high-intensity laser facilities, using the collision of a wakefield-accelerated GeV electron beam with a 30 fs laser pulse of intensity 10²² Wcm^-2. This would demonstrate that the yield of high energy gamma rays is increased by the stochastic nature of photon emission: a beam of 10⁹ electrons will emit 6300 photons with energy > 700 MeV, 60 times the number predicted classically. Detecting those photons, or a prominent low energy peak in the electron beam's post-collision energy spectrum, will provide strong evidence of quantum radiation reaction; we place constraints on the accuracy of timing necessary to achieve this.

This experiment would provide benchmarking for the simulations that will be used to study the plasmas produced in the next generation of laser facilities. With focused intensities > 10²³ Wcm^-2, these will be powerful enough to generate high fluxes of gamma rays and electron-positron pairs from laser–laser and laser–solid interactions. It will become possible to test the physics of exotic astrophysical phenomena, such as pair cascades in pulsar magnetospheres, and explore fundamental aspects of quantum electrodynamics (QED). To that end we will discuss: classical theories of radiation reaction; QED processes in intense fields; and a Monte Carlo algorithm by which the latter may be included in particle-in-cell codes. The feedback between QED processes and classical plasma dynamics characterises a new regime we call QED-plasma physics.

Authors: Blackburn, T; Thomas Blackburn

• Publication date: 2015
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: Oxford University, UK
• Language: English
• Keywords: QED-plasmas; plasma physics; quantum electrodynamics; high-intensity lasers
• Subjects: Atomic and laser physics