QED cascade saturation in extreme high fields

TY - JOUR

T1 - QED cascade saturation in extreme high fields

AU - Luo, Wen

AU - Liu, Wei-Yuan

AU - Yuan, Tao

AU - Chen, Min

AU - Yu, Ji-Ye

AU - Li, Fei-Yu

AU - Del Sorbo, D

AU - Ridgers, C P

AU - Sheng, Zheng Ming

N1 - © 2018, The Author(s).

PY - 2018/5/30

Y1 - 2018/5/30

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - Journal Article

U2 - 10.1038/s41598-018-26785-8

DO - 10.1038/s41598-018-26785-8

M3 - Article

C2 - 29849072

SN - 2045-2322

VL - 8

SP - 1

EP - 8

JO - Scientific Reports

JF - Scientific Reports

IS - 8400

ER -