Interactions at extremely high electromagnetic energy densities and QED processes in supercritical fields
Final Report Abstract
The next frontiers of laser intensity will be reached with powerful laser facilities currently under construction worldwide, including the European Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI), the POLARIS laser in Dresden-Rossendorf (Germany), and a 100-PetaWatt laser at Shanghai (China). Concurrently, multi-GeV linear electron colliders are already operational at DESY (Hamburg, Germany) as part of the XFEL, and at the FACET (Facility for Advanced Accelerator Experimental Tests) facility at SLAC (Stanford, USA). These colliders are expected to soon be combined with powerful femtosecond optical lasers. Spectacular advances in both laser technology and conventional as well as plasma-based particle acceleration methods open unique opportunities for experimental exploration of Intense Field Quantum Electrodynamics (IFQED) effects, including largely unexplored phenomena such as high-order radiative corrections. In electromagnetic fields strong enough that their intensity in the proper reference frame of an ultra-relativistic particle exceeds the Schwinger critical value by a factor of up to 1000, high-order radiative corrections become significant. Of particular interest is the proposed medium-term upgrade of the FACET-II facility, which aims to create an extreme, state-of-the-art colliding beam setup with 100 GeV electronpositron bunches carrying mega-ampere currents, focused down to the nanometer scale. For the first time, the bunch density at the interaction point will surpass the Compton density, ushering in a novel regime that combines extremely high lepton energies with extreme densities and self-generated fields. However, a comprehensive theoretical framework to describe this regime is still lacking. The goal of our proposal was to develop both the theory and modeling of this supercritical IFQED regime. We have investigate this regime in two contexts: (i) the interaction of counterpropagating high-current electron and positron beams, (ii) the interaction of extremely intense electromagnetic pulses with ultra-relativistic electron beams, (iii) the interaction of ultra-intense electromagnetic pulses with solid targets. The quantum dynamic parameter — relating the field strength in a particle’s rest frame to the critical QED field — was assumed to be much greater than one, entering a highly supercritical regime where high-order radiative corrections must be considered. We have calculated the probabilities of fundamental IFQED processes in this regime, requiring substantial reconsideration of existing theoretical and simulation approaches. The analytical results have been incorporated into numerical models and QED-PIC codes, particularly VLPL and QUILL, developed by German and Russian teams, respectively. These modified codes have simulated laser-beam, beam-beam, and laser-target interactions in the supercritical regime, relevant to future high-current lepton colliders and extreme-intensity laser pulses. Feasible experimental scenarios for realizing this regime, including beam collisions at FACET-II and interactions of high-energy particles with ultra-powerful attosecond laser pulses, have been modeled and discussed. These results are also of substantial interest to astrophysics, where certain phenomena require the postulation of supercritical magnetic fields and interactions of ultra-relativistic jets. Our research, bridging IFQED and the modeling of nonlinear processes in ultra-relativistic plasmas, is unique and advances the international forefront in this field.
Publications
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Beamstrahlung-enhanced disruption in beam–beam interaction. New Journal of Physics, 23(10), 103040.
Samsonov, A. S.; Nerush, E. N.; Kostyukov, I. Yu; Filipovic, M.; Baumann, C. & Pukhov, A.
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Effect of transverse displacement of charged particle beams on quantum electrodynamic processes during their collision. Quantum Electronics, 51(9), 807-811.
Filipovic, M.; Baumann, C.; Pukhov, A.M.; Samsonov, A.S. & Kostyukov, I.Yu.
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On the robustness of spin polarization for magnetic vortex accelerated proton bunches in density down-ramps. Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, 63(8), 085011.
Reichwein, L.; Hützen, A.; Büscher, M. & Pukhov, A.
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Acceleration of spin-polarized proton beams via two parallel laser pulses. Physical Review Accelerators and Beams, 25(8).
Reichwein, Lars; Pukhov, Alexander & Büscher, Markus
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QED effects at grazing incidence on solid-state targets. The European Physical Journal D, 76(10).
Filipovic, Marko & Pukhov, Alexander
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Spin-Polarized Particle Beams from Laser-Plasma Based Accelerators. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 2249(1), 012018.
Reichwein, L.; Hützen, A.; Büscher, M. & Pukhov, A.
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Suppression of errors in simulated ultrarelativistic bunch propagation using the X-dispersionless Maxwell solver Physical Review Accelerators and Beams 25 (5). Physical Review Accelerators and Beams, 25(5).
Filipovic, M.; Baumann, C. & Pukhov, A.
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Spin-polarized 3He shock waves from a solid-gas composite target at high laser intensities. Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, 66(5), 055002.
Reichwein, L.; Shen, X. F.; Büscher, M. & Pukhov, A.
