425 research outputs found
The Suppression of Radiation Reaction and Laser Field Depletion in Laser-Electron beam interaction
The effects of radiation reaction (RR) have been studied extensively by using
the ultraintense laser interacts with the counter-propagating relativistic
electron. At the laser intensity at the order of W/cm, the
effects of RR are significant in a few laser period for a relativistic
electron. However, the laser at such intensity is tightly focused and the laser
energy is usually assumed to be fixed. Then, the signal of RR and energy
conservation cannot be guaranteed. To assess the effects of RR in a tightly
focused laser pulse and the evolution of the laser energy, we simulate this
interaction with a beam of electrons by means of Particle-in-Cell (PIC)
method. We observed that the effects of RR are suppressed due to the
ponderomotive force and accompanied by a non-negligible amount of laser field
energy reduction. This is due to the ponderomotive force that prevents the
electrons from approaching the center of the laser pulse and leads to the
interaction at weaker field region. At the same time, the laser energy is
absorbed through ponderomotive acceleration. Thus, the kinetic energy of the
electron beam has to be carefully selected such that the effects of RR become
obvious.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure
Dimuon production by laser-wakefield accelerated electrons
We analyze pair production generated by high-energy electrons
emerging from a laser-wakefield accelerator. The pairs are created
in a solid thick high- target, following the electron accelerating plasma
region. Numerical estimates are presented for electron beams obtained presently
in the LBL TW laser experiment \cite{C2} and possible future developments.
Reactions induced by the secondary bremsstrahlung photons dominate the dimuon
production. According to our estimates, a 20 pC electron bunch with energy of 1
(10) GeV may create about 200 (6000) muon pairs. The produced can be
used in studying various aspects of muon-related physics in table top
installations. This may be considered as an important step towards the
investigation of more complicated elementary processes induced by laser driven
electrons.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figure
Nonaxisymmetric Magnetorotational Instability in Proto-Neutron Stars
We investigate the stability of differentially rotating proto-neutron stars
(PNSs) with a toroidal magnetic field. Stability criteria for nonaxisymmetric
MHD instabilities are derived using a local linear analysis. PNSs are expected
to have much stronger radial shear in the rotation velocity compared to normal
stars. We find that nonaxisymmetric magnetorotational instability (NMRI) with a
large azimuthal wavenumber is dominant over the kink mode () in
differentially rotating PNSs. The growth rate of the NMRI is of the order of
the angular velocity which is faster than that of the kink-type
instability by several orders of magnitude. The stability criteria are
analogous to those of the axisymmetric magnetorotational instability with a
poloidal field, although the effects of leptonic gradients are considered in
our analysis. The NMRI can grow even in convectively stable layers if the
wavevectors of unstable modes are parallel to the restoring force by the
Brunt-V\"ais\"al\"a oscillation. The nonlinear evolution of NMRI could amplify
the magnetic fields and drive MHD turbulence in PNSs, which may lead to
enhancement of the neutrino luminosity.Comment: 24pages, 7figures, Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journal (December 12, 2005
Characterization of electrostatic shock in laser-produced optically-thin plasma flows using optical diagnostics
We present a method for evaluating the properties of electrostatic shock in laser-produced plasmas by using optical diagnostics. A shock is formed by a collimated jet in counter-streaming plasmas in nearly collisionless condition, showing the steepening of the transition width in time. In the present experiment, a streaked optical pyrometry was applied to evaluate the electron density and temperatures in the upstream and downstream regions of the shock so that the shock conditions are satisfied, by assuming thermal bremsstrahlung emission in optically thin plasmas. The derived electron densities are nearly consistent with those estimated from interferometry
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