Luo, Wen, Liu, Wei-Yuan, Yuan, Tao et al. (6 more authors) (2018) QED cascade saturation in extreme high fields. Scientific Reports. pp. 1-8. ISSN 2045-2322
Abstract
Upcoming ultrahigh power lasers at 10 PW level will make it possible to experimentally explore electron-positron (e-e+) pair cascades and subsequent relativistic e-e+ jets formation, which are supposed to occur in extreme astrophysical environments, such as black holes, pulsars, quasars and gamma-ray bursts. In the latter case it is a long-standing question as to how the relativistic jets are formed and what their temperatures and compositions are. Here we report simulation results of pair cascades in two counter-propagating QED-strong laser fields. A scaling of QED cascade growth with laser intensity is found, showing clear cascade saturation above threshold intensity of ~1024 W/cm2. QED cascade saturation leads to pair plasma cooling and longitudinal compression along the laser axis, resulting in the subsequent formation of relativistic dense e-e+ jets along transverse directions. Such laser-driven QED cascade saturation may open up the opportunity to study energetic astrophysical phenomena in laboratory.
Metadata
Authors/Creators: |
|
||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2018, The Author(s). | ||||
Keywords: | Journal Article | ||||
Dates: |
|
||||
Institution: | The University of York | ||||
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Sciences (York) > Electronic Engineering (York) The University of York > Faculty of Sciences (York) > Physics (York) |
||||
Funding Information: |
|
||||
Depositing User: | Pure (York) | ||||
Date Deposited: | 12 Jun 2018 10:30 | ||||
Last Modified: | 06 Dec 2023 12:31 | ||||
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-26785-8 | ||||
Status: | Published | ||||
Refereed: | Yes | ||||
Identification Number: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-26785-8 |