Fundamental Physics Opportunities with Multi-PetaWatt- and Multi-MegaJoule-class Facilities

durch Peter Norreys (University of Oxford and STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory)

Montag 04.03.2024, 15:00 → 17:00 Europe/Berlin

MFR

In my talk, I will present some recent highlights from my research group in the Clarendon Laboratory, obtained working in partnership with many outstanding international collaborators. These fall under the three broad themes. The first is novel laser-plasma interactions, which include those resulting from twisted light¹, ionisation injection for laser- and beam-driven wakefield accelerators², along with frequency domain holographic³ and compressive sensing diagnostic developments⁴relevant to future colliders. The second theme is that of extreme field physics using multi-petawatt laser facilities⁸. These include first principles ionisation processes⁵, absorption processes and ultra-bright attosecond X-rays from high harmonic generation⁶, photon-photon scattering in the non-linear QED regime⁷ and, most recently, gravitational wave generation using petaWatt- and/or megaJoule-class facilities⁸. We are now extending these studies to those of gravity-wave detection, with promising preliminary results. The third theme is that of inertial fusion studies^9-16. All of these studies indicate that an international, dual-use, 20-MJ ICF/IFE facility, with the first 2-MJ at high repetition rate supplying single-shot high energy amplifiers, will open many new exciting avenues for both fundamental physics and high energy density science in the decades ahead.

 

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2. M.W. von der Leyen et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 105002 (2023) 
3. M.W. Mayr et al., Phys. Rev. Acc. Beams 22, 113501, (2019)
4. S. Howard et al. High-Power Laser Sci. Eng. 11 e32 (2023)
5. I. Ouatu et al. Phys. Rev E 106 015205 (2022)
6. A. Savin et al., Nature Sci. Reports 9(1) (2019)
7. R. Aboushelbaya et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 113604 (2019) 
8. E. Atonga et al. Phys. Rev. D (submitted 2023) https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.04191
9. H. Martin et al., Bull. Am. Phys. Soc. APS DPP (2023)
10. R. Rusko et al., Bull. Am. Phys. Soc. APS DPP (2023)
11. R. Paddock et al., J. Plasma Phys. 88, 905880314 (2022)
12. R. Paddock et al. Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 66 025005 (2024)
13. J. Lee et al., Phys. Plasmas 30, 022702 (2023)
14. R. Paddock et al. Phil. Trans. R. Soc A 379 (2189), 20200024 (2021)
15. R.W. Paddock et al. Phys. Rev. E 107 025206 (2023)
16.  J.H. Nuckolls, J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 244 012007 (2010)

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