量子电动力学—粒子模拟极端等离子体动力学研究

新一代拍瓦激光装置有望将激光强度提升至10²³~10²⁴ W·cm^-2,在此极端强场条件下非线性量子电动力学效应对等离子体动力学过程产生重要影响.相对论电子在强电磁场作用下会同步辐射大量伽马光子,当后者穿过超强电磁场时会级联产生正负电子对.与此同时,这些量子电动力学效应也会反作用于激光等离子体相互作用过程,如辐射阻尼严重影响电子运动过程.为了研究这样极端的等离子体动力学,我们介绍最近几年发展的量子电动力学数值模拟模块,并将其耦合到传统的粒子模拟程序中,即量子电动力学-粒子模拟程序.由于大量新辐射的光子和产生的正负电子对会造成模拟粒子数目的不断增加,我们发展了粒子融合技术来减小模拟规模.利用此量子电动力学-粒子模拟程序,我们对极端强场激光物质相互作用以及极端天体物理现象开展了数值模拟研究.     

量子电动力学—粒子模拟极端等离子体动力学研究（英文）

新一代拍瓦激光装置有望将激光强度提升至10~(23)~10~(24)W·cm~(-2),在此极端强场条件下非线性量子电动力学效应对等离子体动力学过程产生重要影响.相对论电子在强电磁场作用下会同步辐射大量伽马光子,当后者穿过超强电磁场时会级联产生正负电子对.与此同时,这些量子电动力学效应也会反作用于激光等离子体相互作用过程,如辐射阻尼严重影响电子运动过程.为了研究这样极端的等离子体动力学,我们介绍最近几年发展的量子电动力学数值模拟模块,并将其耦合到传统的粒子模拟程序中,即量子电动力学-粒子模拟程序.由于大量新辐射的光子和产生的正负电子对会造成模拟粒子数目的不断增加,我们发展了粒子融合技术来减小模拟规模.利用此量子电动力学-粒子模拟程序,我们对极端强场激光物质相互作用以及极端天体物理现象开展了数值模拟研究.     

极强激光场驱动超亮伽马辐射和正负电子对产生的研究进展

高功率超短超强激光脉冲的诞生开启了相对论非线性光学、高强场物理、新型激光聚变、实验室天体物理等前沿领域.近年来,随着数拍瓦级乃至更高峰值功率激光装置的建成,超强激光与等离子体相互作用进入到一个全新的高强场范畴.这种极强激光场与等离子体相互作用蕴含着丰富的物理过程,除了经典的波与粒子作用、相对论效应、有质动力效应等非线性物理过程外,量子电动力学(QED)效应变得格外重要,例如辐射阻尼效应、正负电子对产生、强伽马射线辐射、QED级联、真空极化等.本文主要介绍我们近年来在极端强激光场与等离子体相互作用中激发的QED效应以及伴随的超亮强伽马射线辐射和稠密正负电子对产生等方面的研究进展.     

《强激光与粒子束》“超强激光激发的强场量子电动力学”专栏征稿启事

正征稿截止日期:2022年2月30日计划出版日期:2022年6月30日近年来,随着激光放大技术的发展,激光器的功率已接近百拍瓦,在这样高强度激光场中,经典电动力学无法正确地描述包括辐射在内的许多物理现象,而需要用强场量子电动力学(Strong Field Quantum Electrodynamics,QED)来描述和研究等离子体与激光相互作用中发生的基本物理过程。强场QED作为描述极端强度电磁场中电磁相互作用的量子理论,是在QED的基础上发展起来的。它预言在很高的电磁场强度下会出现大量新的物理现象,包括辐射中的高阶非线性效应和辐射阻尼效应、Schwinger对产生、真空极化、真空双折射效应、     

超强激光与固体靶作用驱动量子电动力学级联和稠密正电子产生的研究进展

极端超短超强激光脉冲的诞生将光与物质的相互作用推进到由辐射阻尼效应和量子电动力学（QED）效应占主导的高度非线性物理范畴。强场QED效应蕴含了丰富的物理过程包括辐射阻尼、高能伽马辐射、正负电子对产生、QED级联、真空极化等,是高能量密度物理和强场物理研究领域的前沿热点。QED级联是解释致密天体辐射和伽马射线暴形成的重要物理机制,其产生的稠密正电子源在高能物理、材料无损探测、癌症诊断等领域亦有重要的应用前景。介绍了QED级联过程及其理论模型,讨论了固体靶中的QED级联发展及其诱导的非线性物理效应,并回顾了固体靶中稠密正电子产生的主要研究成果。     

伴随强光子辐射的自旋极化等离子体研究进展

强光子辐射导致的自旋极化等离子体是强激光与物质相互作用领域兴起的新研究方向。基于等离子体的自旋极化粒子束在固态材料诊断、原子核结构探测、弱电相互作用分析等方面具有广泛应用。同时,自旋作为电子的固有属性,它可为描述等离子体的行为状态提供新的信息自由度,因此自旋极化信号在强场等离子体自诊断也具有潜在应用。概述了在超强相对论等离子体中,由伽马光子辐射伴随的自旋翻转产生的自旋极化等离子体的物理机制,并对其在超高能量密度等离子体瞬态动力学反演的可能进行了介绍。     

激光参数对非理想真空激光光强极限的影响

人类在实验室可实现的激光强度极限是强场量子电动力学（QED）的重要问题。在非理想真空条件下,极端超强激光与残留的电子相互作用触发伽马光子辐射与正负电子对产生的QED级联效应,从而显著消耗激光能量,大幅降低可实现的激光峰值强度。考虑到QED级联效应与激光偏振、焦斑尺寸、脉宽长度有着密切的关系,基于囊括QED过程的粒子网格模拟方法（Particle-in-cell, PIC）对上述参数的效应进行分析,同时构建了激光场演化的自洽方程来进行解释,二者结果基本保持一致,获得的强度极限在考虑的参数范围内为1026～1027 W/cm?2。结果表明,同等情形下,圆偏振激光可激发更强的QED级联,使得激光强度上限略低于线偏振。此外,紧聚焦激光由于QED级联发生的时空间尺度更小,从而激光的吸收效应被显著抑制,进而可以实现更强的聚焦强度。对于更长脉宽的激光,由于正负电子对吸收的能量区域更加弥散,使得可实现的激光强度上限阈值有所提升。但对于超短脉宽情形（如单周期）,由于QED级联的种子源电子束不能很好地被约束在激光区域,理论分析耗散的激光能量偏高。此外,在高真空度的情形下,残余电子的随机性也会对可实现激光强度产生一定的影响。研究结果可为后续开展极端强场QED实验和数100 PW级超强超短激光装置建设提供指导。     

引力形状因子的介质修正

将引力形状因子推广到了手征费米子的情形,并由此给出了熟知的自旋-涡旋耦合.计算了量子电动力学等离子体中引力形状因子的辐射修正.发现形状因子中存在两个结构对费米子在涡旋场中的散射振幅有贡献,其中之一来自于费米子的自能修正,指向介质中自旋-涡旋耦合的压低;另一结构来自于对引力子-费米子顶点的修正,这一修正不能解释为势能,而是对应初末态的跃迁矩阵元.两个结构均对手征涡旋效应产生贡献.辐射修正总的效果是对手征涡旋效应的增强.本文的结果从形状因子的角度澄清了自旋-涡旋耦合以及手征涡旋效应的联系和区别.另外,讨论了上述结果在量子色动力学等离子体中的应用,结果暗示辐射修正可能对重离子碰撞的自旋极化现象有一定效应.     

全光汤姆孙散射

随着激光和加速器技术的发展,激光场强度和粒子能量也有所提升,在高场强和高电子能量的条件下,电子与光子的汤姆孙散射过程将达到高度非线性状态,在这种状态下会发生多光子效应,即单个电子同时与多个光子相互作用并辐射一个高能光子,此过程通常称为多光子汤姆孙散射.当场强和粒子能量变得更高时,需要引入量子电动力学理论来解决极端光场物理中的动理学过程.近期,全球多台数拍瓦激光装置逐渐投入使用,激光等离子体相互作用中的此类效应会变得极其显著.而全光汤姆孙散射成为目前研究极端光场物理最佳的实验方案,因此,系统地研究全光多光子汤姆孙散射是本领域未来十年极其重要的方向.本文对近年来全光汤姆孙散射实验从单光子、低阶多光子到高阶多光子的研究进展进行了综述,并对其未来的发展方向进行了展望.另外,伴随着散射过程产生的准直高亮X/伽马射线,有望发展成为具有重要应用价值的紧凑型超亮高能光源.     

强场X射线激光物理

相干X光,特别是X射线自由电子激光技术的发展提供了一种新的产生超强光场的途径.由于其较高的光子能量、高峰值功率密度与超短的脉冲长度,有望将强场激光物理从可见光波段推进到X光波段.目前,基于X射线的非线性原子分子物理已取得了初步进展,随着X射线光强的提升,相互作用将进入相对论物理、强场量子电动力学(quantum electrodynamics,QED)物理等领域,为激光驱动加速与辐射、QED真空、暗物质的产生与探测等带来新的科学发现机会.本文对强场X射线激光在固体中的尾场加速、真空极化、轴子的产生与探测等方面进行介绍,旨在阐明X射线波段强场物理在若干基础前沿与关键应用方面的独特优势,并对未来的发展方向进行展望.     

Near QED regime of laser interaction with overdense plasmas

Interaction of laser plulses with intensities up to 10²⁵?W/cm² with overdense plasma targets is investigated via three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. At these intensities, radiation of electrons in the laser field becomes important. Electrons transfer a significant fraction of their energy to γ-photons and obtain strong feedbacks due to radiation reaction (RR) force. The RR effect on the distribution of laser energies among three main species: electrons, ions and photons is studied. The RR and electron-positron pair creation are implemented by a QED model. As the laser intensity inreases, the ratio of laser energy coupled to electrons drops while the one for γ-photons reaches up to 35%. Two distinctive plasma density regimes of the high-density carbon target and low-density solid hydrogen target are identified from the laser energy partitions and angular distributions of photons. The power-laws of absorption efficiency versus laser intensity and the transition of photon divergence are revealed. These show enhanced generation of γ-photon beams with improved collimation in the relativistically transparent regime. A new effect of transverse trapping of electrons inside the laser field caused by the RR force is observed: electrons can be unexpectedly confined by the intense laser field when the RR force is comparable to the Lorentz force. Finally, the RR effect and different regions of photon emission in laser-foil interactions are clarified.     

Quantum effects with an x-ray free-electron laser

A quantum kinetic equation coupled with Maxwell's equation is used to estimate the laser power required at an x-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) facility to expose intrinsically quantum effects in the process of QED vacuum decay via spontaneous pair production. A 9 -TW-peak XFEL laser with photon energy of 8.3 keV could be sufficient to initiate particle accumulation and the consequent formation of a plasma of spontaneously produced pairs. The evolution of the particle number in the plasma will exhibit non-Markovian aspects of the strong-field pair production process, and the plasma's internal currents will generate an electric field whose interference with that of the laser leads to plasma oscillations.     

激光脉冲和电子束对撞准确度的测量方法

超强激光脉冲与相对论电子束相互对撞是当前主要的强场量子电动力学（QED）实验手段。如何测量超强激光脉冲和电子束对撞的准确度,进而实现微米精度的准确对撞,是目前限制实验发展的重要因素。利用蒙特卡罗数值模拟方法,系统研究了超强激光脉冲和相对论电子束相互对撞过程,重点关注了电子和辐射光子动力学信息与激光脉冲和电子束对撞偏移量之间的对应关系。研究发现:辐射光子的空间分布信息,可以有效反映出激光脉冲和电子束的对撞偏移量。基于该研究结果,实验中可利用光子空间分布的信息,实现对激光脉冲和电子束对撞准确度的调节,从而有望促进强场QED实验技术的发展。     

The polarization effect of a laser in multiphoton Compton scattering

The multiphoton Compton scattering in a high-intensity laser beam is studied by using the laser-dressed quantum electrodynamics(QED) method, which is a non-perturbative theory for the interaction between a plane electromagnetic field and a charged particle. In order to analyze in the real experimental condition, a Lorentz transformation for the cross section of this process is derived between the laboratory frame and the initial rest frame of electrons. The energy of the scattered photon is analyzed, as well as the cross sections for different laser intensities and polarizations and different electron velocities. The angular distribution of the emitted photon is investigated in a special velocity of the electron, in which for a fixed number of absorbed photons, the electron energy will not change after the scattering in the lab frame.We obtain the conclusion that higher laser intensities suppress few-laser-photon absorption and enhance more-laser-photon absorption. A comparison between different polarizations is also made, and we find that the linearly polarized laser is more suitable to generate nonlinear Compton scattering.     

Polarized x-ray emission from magnetized neutron stars: signature of strong-field vacuum polarization

In the atmospheric plasma of a strongly magnetized neutron star, vacuum polarization can induce a Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein type resonance across which an x-ray photon may (depending on its energy) convert from one mode into the other, with significant changes in opacities and polarizations. We show that this vacuum resonance effect gives rise to a unique energy-dependent polarization signature in the surface emission from neutron stars. The detection of polarized x rays from neutron stars can provide a direct probe of strong-field quantum electrodynamics and constrain the neutron star magnetic field and geometry.     

On refractive processes in strong laser field quantum electrodynamics

Refractive processes in strong-field QED are pure quantum processes, which involve only external photons and the background electromagnetic field. We show analytically that such processes occurring in a plane-wave field and involving external real photons are all characterized by a surprisingly modest net exchange of energy and momentum with the laser field, corresponding to a few laser photons, even in the limit of ultra-relativistic laser intensities. We obtain this result by a direct calculation of the transition matrix element of an arbitrary refractive QED process and accounting exactly for the background plane-wave field. A simple physical explanation of this modest net exchange of laser photons is provided, based on the fact that the laser field couples with the external photons only indirectly through virtual electron–positron pairs. For stronger and stronger laser fields, the pairs cover a shorter and shorter distance before they annihilate again, such that the laser can transfer to them an energy corresponding to only a few photons. These results can be relevant for the future experiments aiming to test strong-field QED at present and next-generation facilities.     

Laser-driven electron beam and radiation sources for basic,medical and industrial sciences

To date active research on laser-driven plasma-based accelerators have achieved great progress on production of high-energy, high-quality electron and photon beams in a compact scale. Such laser plasma accelerators have been envisaged bringing a wide range of applications in basic, medical and industrial sciences. Here inheriting the groundbreaker’s review article on “Laser Acceleration and its future” [Toshiki Tajima, (2010)],¹⁾ we would like to review recent progress of producing such electron beams due to relativistic laser-plasma interactions followed by laser wakefield acceleration and lead to the scaling formulas that are useful to design laser plasma accelerators with controllability of beam energy and charge. Lastly specific examples of such laser-driven electron/photon beam sources are illustrated.