Exascale and ML Models for Accelerator Simulations

Computational modeling is essential to the exploration and design of advanced particle accelerators. The modeling of laser-plasma acceleration and interaction can achieve predictive quality for experiments if adequate resolution, full geometry and physical effects are included. Here, we report on the significant evolution in fully relativistic full-3D modeling of conventional and advanced accelerators in the WarpX and ImpactX codes with the introduction of Exascale supercomputing and AI/ML models. We will cover the first PIC simulations on an Exascale machine, the need for and evolution of open standards, and based on our fully open community codes, the connection of time and space scales from plasma to conventional beamlines with data-driven machine-learning models

From Compact Plasma Particle Sources to Advanced Accelerators with Modeling at Exascale

Developing complex, reliable advanced accelerators requires a coordinated, extensible, and comprehensive approach in modeling, from source to the end of beam lifetime. We present highlights in Exascale Computing to scale accelerator modeling software to the requirements set for contemporary science drivers. In particular, we present the first laser-plasma modeling on an exaflop supercomputer using the US DOE Exascale Computing Project WarpX. Leveraging developments for Exascale, the new DOE SCIDAC-5 Consortium for Advanced Modeling of Particle Accelerators (CAMPA) will advance numerical algorithms and accelerate community modeling codes in a cohesive manner: from beam source, over energy boost, transport, injection, storage, to application or interaction. Such start-to-end modeling will enable the exploration of hybrid accelerators, with conventional and advanced elements, as the next step for advanced accelerator modeling. Following open community standards, we seed an open ecosystem of codes that can be readily combined with each other and machine learning frameworks. These will cover ultrafast to ultraprecise modeling for future hybrid accelerator design, even enabling virtual test stands and twins of accelerators that can be used in operations.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to the 20th Advanced Accelerator Concepts Workshop (AAC22

IP-10 response to RD1 antigens might be a useful biomarker for monitoring tuberculosis therapy

Background There is an urgent need of prognosis markers for tuberculosis (TB) to improve treatment strategies. The results of several studies show that the Interferon (IFN)-γ-specific response to the TB antigens of the QuantiFERON TB Gold (QFT-IT antigens) decreases after successful TB therapy. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether there are factors other than IFN-γ [such as IFN-γ inducible protein (IP)-10 which has also been associated with TB] in response to QFT-IT antigens that can be used as biomarkers for monitoring TB treatment. Methods In this exploratory study we assessed the changes in IP-10 secretion in response to QFT-IT antigens and RD1 peptides selected by computational analysis in 17 patients with active TB at the time of diagnosis and after 6 months of treatment. The IFN-γ response to QFT-IT antigens and RD1 selected peptides was evaluated as a control. A non-parametric Wilcoxon signed-rank test for paired comparisons was used to compare the continuous variables at the time of diagnosis and at therapy completion. A Chi-square test was used to compare proportions. Results We did not observe significant IP-10 changes in whole blood from either NIL or QFT-IT antigen tubes, after 1-day stimulation, between baseline and therapy completion (p = 0.08 and p = 0.7 respectively). Conversely, the level of IP-10 release to RD1 selected peptides was significantly different (p = 0.006). Similar results were obtained when we detected the IFN-γ in response to the QFT-IT antigens (p = 0.06) and RD1 selected peptides (p = 0.0003). The proportion of the IP-10 responders to the QFT-IT antigens did not significantly change between baseline and therapy completion (p = 0.6), whereas it significantly changed in response to RD1 selected peptides (p = 0.002). The proportion of IFN-γ responders between baseline and therapy completion was not significant for QFT-IT antigens (p = 0.2), whereas it was significant for the RD1 selected peptides (p = 0.002), confirming previous observations. Conclusions Our preliminary study provides an interesting hypothesis: IP-10 response to RD1 selected peptides (similar to IFN-γ) might be a useful biomarker for monitoring therapy efficacy in patients with active TB. However, further studies in larger cohorts are needed to confirm the consistency of these study results

Achieving extreme light intensities using relativistic plasma mirrors

In this letter, cutting-edge 3D Particle-In-Cell simulations are used to demonstrate that so-called relativistic plasma mirrors irradiated by PetaWatt (PW) lasers and naturally curved by laser radiation pressure can be used to tightly focus Doppler-generated harmonics to extreme intensities between $10^{25}-10^{26}W.cm^{-2}$. Those simulations are then employed to develop and validate a general 3D model of harmonic focusing by a curved relativistic plasma mirror. Finally, the insight gained from this model is used to propose novel all-optical techniques that would further increase the plasma mirror curvature with the ultimate goal of approaching the Schwinger limit

Génération d'impulsions attosecondes sur miroir plasma relativiste

When an ultra intense femtosecond laser ($I>10^{16}W.cm^{-2}$) with high contrast is focused on a solid target, the laser field at focus is high enough to completely ionize the target surface during the rising edge of the laser pulse and form a plasma. This plasma is so dense (the electron density is of the order of hundred times the critical density) that it completely reflects the incident laser beam in the specular direction: this is the so-called " plasma mirror ". When laser intensity becomes very high, the non-linear response of the plasma mirror to the laser field periodically deforms the incident electric field leading to high harmonic generation in the reflected beam. In the temporal domain this harmonic spectrum is associated to a train of attosecond pulses. The goals of my PhD were to get a better comprehension of the properties of harmonic beams produced on plasma mirrors and design new methods to control theses properties, notably in order to produce isolated attosecond pulses instead of trains. Initially, we imagined and modeled the first realistic technique to generate isolated attosecond on plasma mirrors. This brand new approach is based on a totally new physical effect: "the attosecond lighthouse effect". Its principle consists in sending the attosecond pulses of the train in different directions and selects one of these pulses by putting a slit in the far field. Despites its simplicity, this technique is very general and applies to any high harmonic generation mechanisms. Moreover, the attosecond lighthouse effect has many other applications (e.g in metrology). In particular, it paves the way to attosecond pump-probe experiments. Then, we studied the spatial properties of these harmonics, whose control and characterization are crucial if one wants to use this source in future application experiments. For instance, we need to control very precisely the harmonic beam divergence in order to achieve the attosecond lighthouse effect and get isolated attosecond pulses. At very high intensities, the plasma mirror dents and gets curved by the inhomogeneous radiation pressure of the laser field at focus. The plasma mirror surface thus acts as a curved surface, which focuses the harmonic beam in front of the target and fixes its spatial properties. We developed a fully analytical and predictive model for the surface deformation, thanks to which we are now able to calculate very easily the spatial properties of the generated harmonic beams. we validated this model through hundreds of 1D and 2D PIC simulations.Lorsqu'on focalise un laser femtoseconde ultraintense [$I>10^{16}W.cm^{-2}$] à très haut contraste sur une cible solide, le champ laser au foyer est suffisant pour ioniser complètement la surface de la cible durant le front montant de l'impulsion et former un plasma. Ce plasma est très dense [densité supérieure à la densité critique pour la fréquence laser] et réfléchit le faisceau laser dans la direction spéculaire: c'est ce que l'on appelle un "miroir plasma". Lorsque l'intensité laser est suffisamment élevée, la réponse de ce miroir plasma devient non-linéaire, ce qui conduit à la génération d'harmoniques d'ordres élevés dans le faisceau réfléchi. Dans le domaine temporel, ce spectre d'harmoniques est associé à un train d'impulsions attosecondes. Les objectifs de ma thèse étaient d'arriver à une meilleure compréhension des propriétés des faisceaux harmoniques produits sur miroir plasma, et de mettre au point de nouvelles méthodes pour contrôler ces propriétés, notamment en vue de générer des impulsions attosecondes isolées au lieu de trains. Ainsi, nous avons tout d'abord imaginé et analysé, la première technique réaliste de génération d'impulsions attosecondes isolées sur miroir plasma. Cette approche entièrement nouvelle repose sur un tout nouvel effet physique: "l'effet phare attoseconde". Son principe consiste à envoyer les impulsions attosecondes du train dans des directions différentes, puis à sélectionner une seule de ces impulsions en champ lointain à l'aide d'une fente. En plus de sa simplicité d'implémentation sur une chaîne laser de type CPA, cette technique est très générale et s'applique non seulement aux miroirs plasma, mais plus généralement à n'importe quel mécanisme de génération d'harmoniques d'ordres élevés. Au delà de la génération d'impulsions attosecondes isolées, cet effet a plusieurs autres applications que nous discutons en détail. Ensuite nous nous sommes intéressés aux propriétés spatiales de ces harmoniques, dont la caractérisation et le contrôle sont cruciaux pour pouvoir utiliser cette source dans de futures expériences d'application. Par exemple, la réalisation de l'effet phare attoseconde nécessite de contrôler précisément la divergence des impulsions attosecondes. Ces propriétés spatiales sont imposées par la courbure du miroir plasma sous l'effet de la pression inhomogène du laser sur la cible. Nous avons développé un modéle complet de cette déformation du miroir plasma, qui permet de calculer analytiquement les propriétés spatiales du faisceau harmonique. Ce modèle a été validé par des simulations numériques approfondies

Reflecting petawatt lasers off relativistic plasma mirrors: a realistic path to the Schwinger limit

International audienceThe quantum vacuum plays a central role in physics. Quantum electrodynamics (QED) predicts that the properties of the fermionic quantum vacuum can be probed by extremely large electromagnetic fields. The typical field amplitudes required correspond to the onset of the ‘optical breakdown’ of this vacuum, expected at light intensities >4.7×1029 W/cm2. Approaching this ‘Schwinger limit’ would enable testing of major but still unverified predictions of QED. Yet, the Schwinger limit is seven orders of magnitude above the present record in light intensity achieved by high-power lasers. To close this considerable gap, a promising paradigm consists of reflecting these laser beams off a mirror in relativistic motion, to induce a Doppler effect that compresses the light pulse in time down to the attosecond range and converts it to shorter wavelengths, which can then be focused much more tightly than the initial laser light. However, this faces a major experimental hurdle: how to generate such relativistic mirrors? In this article, we explain how this challenge could nowadays be tackled by using so-called ‘relativistic plasma mirrors’. We argue that approaching the Schwinger limit in the coming years by applying this scheme to the latest generation of petawatt-class lasers is a challenging but realistic objective

Ultrahigh-order Maxwell solver with extreme scalability for electromagnetic PIC simulations of plasmas

International audienceThe advent of massively parallel supercomputers, with their distributed-memory technology using many processing units, has favored the development of highly-scalable local low-order solvers at the expense of harder-to-scale global very high-order spectral methods. Indeed, FFT-based methods, which were very popular on shared memory computers, have been largely replaced by finite-difference (FD) methods for the solution of many problems, including plasmas simulations with electromagnetic Particle-In-Cell methods. For some problems, such as the modeling of so-called “plasma mirrors” for the generation of high-energy particles and ultra-short radiations, we have shown that the inaccuracies of standard FD-based PIC methods prevent the modeling on present supercomputers at sufficient accuracy. We demonstrate here that a new method, based on the use of local FFTs, enables ultrahigh-order accuracy with unprecedented scalability, and thus for the first time the accurate modeling of plasma mirrors in 3D

Achieving extreme light intensities using optically-structured plasma mirrors

International audienc