Can High-Powered Lasers Unlock the Secrets of Strong Field Quantum Electrodynamics? (phys.org) 37
Phys.org reports that a newly published theoretical/computer-modeling study "suggests that the world's most powerful lasers might finally crack the elusive physics behind some of the most extreme phenomena in the universe — gamma ray bursts, pulsar magnetospheres, and more."
The study comes from an international team including researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and France's Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (publishing in the journal Physical Review Letters.): The team's modeling study shows that petawatt (PW)-class lasers — juiced to even higher intensities via light-matter interactions — might provide a key to unlock the mysteries of the strong-field (SF) regime of quantum electrodynamics (QED). A petawatt is 1 times ten to the fifteenth power (that is, followed by 15 zeroes), or a quadrillion watts. The output of today's most powerful lasers is measured in petawatts... "This is a powerful demonstration of how advanced simulation of complex systems can enable new paths for discovery science by integrating multiple physics processes — in this case, the laser interaction with a target and subsequent production of particles in a second target," said ATAP Division Director Cameron Geddes....
The scheme consists of boosting the intensity of a petawatt laser pulse with a relativistic plasma mirror. Such a mirror can be formed when an ultrahigh intensity laser beam hits an optically polished solid target. Due to the high laser amplitude, the solid target is fully ionized, forming a dense plasma that reflects the incident light. At the same time the reflecting surface is actually moved by the intense laser field. As a result of that motion, part of the reflected laser pulse is temporally compressed and converted to a shorter wavelength by the Doppler effect. Radiation pressure from the laser gives this plasma mirror a natural curvature. This focuses the Doppler-boosted beam to much smaller spots, which can lead to extreme intensity gains — more than three orders of magnitude — where the Doppler-boosted laser beam is focused. The simulations indicate that a secondary target at this focus would give clear SF-QED signatures in actual experiments.
The study drew upon Berkeley Lab's diverse scientific resources, including its WarpX simulation code, which was developed for modeling advanced particle accelerators under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy's Exascale Computing Project... The discovery via WarpX of novel high-intensity laser-plasma interaction regimes could have benefits far beyond ideas for exploring strong-field quantum electrodynamics. These include the better understanding and design of plasma-based accelerators such as those being developed at the Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator. More compact and less expensive than conventional accelerators of similar energy, they could eventually be game-changers in applications that range from extending the reach of high-energy physics and of penetrating photon sources for precision imaging, to implanting ions in semiconductors, treating cancer, developing new pharmaceuticals, and more.
"It is gratifying to be able to contribute to the validation of new, potentially very impactful ideas via the use of our novel algorithms and codes," Vay said of the Berkeley Lab team's contributions to the study. "This is part of the beauty of collaborative team science."
Long-time Slashdot reader fahrbot-bot has suggested that the article deserves an alternate title: "Article I Read Three Times and Still Don't Completely Understand."
The study comes from an international team including researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and France's Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (publishing in the journal Physical Review Letters.): The team's modeling study shows that petawatt (PW)-class lasers — juiced to even higher intensities via light-matter interactions — might provide a key to unlock the mysteries of the strong-field (SF) regime of quantum electrodynamics (QED). A petawatt is 1 times ten to the fifteenth power (that is, followed by 15 zeroes), or a quadrillion watts. The output of today's most powerful lasers is measured in petawatts... "This is a powerful demonstration of how advanced simulation of complex systems can enable new paths for discovery science by integrating multiple physics processes — in this case, the laser interaction with a target and subsequent production of particles in a second target," said ATAP Division Director Cameron Geddes....
The scheme consists of boosting the intensity of a petawatt laser pulse with a relativistic plasma mirror. Such a mirror can be formed when an ultrahigh intensity laser beam hits an optically polished solid target. Due to the high laser amplitude, the solid target is fully ionized, forming a dense plasma that reflects the incident light. At the same time the reflecting surface is actually moved by the intense laser field. As a result of that motion, part of the reflected laser pulse is temporally compressed and converted to a shorter wavelength by the Doppler effect. Radiation pressure from the laser gives this plasma mirror a natural curvature. This focuses the Doppler-boosted beam to much smaller spots, which can lead to extreme intensity gains — more than three orders of magnitude — where the Doppler-boosted laser beam is focused. The simulations indicate that a secondary target at this focus would give clear SF-QED signatures in actual experiments.
The study drew upon Berkeley Lab's diverse scientific resources, including its WarpX simulation code, which was developed for modeling advanced particle accelerators under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy's Exascale Computing Project... The discovery via WarpX of novel high-intensity laser-plasma interaction regimes could have benefits far beyond ideas for exploring strong-field quantum electrodynamics. These include the better understanding and design of plasma-based accelerators such as those being developed at the Berkeley Lab Laser Accelerator. More compact and less expensive than conventional accelerators of similar energy, they could eventually be game-changers in applications that range from extending the reach of high-energy physics and of penetrating photon sources for precision imaging, to implanting ions in semiconductors, treating cancer, developing new pharmaceuticals, and more.
"It is gratifying to be able to contribute to the validation of new, potentially very impactful ideas via the use of our novel algorithms and codes," Vay said of the Berkeley Lab team's contributions to the study. "This is part of the beauty of collaborative team science."
Long-time Slashdot reader fahrbot-bot has suggested that the article deserves an alternate title: "Article I Read Three Times and Still Don't Completely Understand."
Throw a little light on the secrets (Score:2)
You had one job ...
"May cure cancer" (Score:1, Troll)
Bullshit detected. Apparently whoever wrote that article is clueless.
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Strong light sources have proved themselves useful.
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Since there's probably 2 or 3 petawatt lasers in the country, and one of them is dedicated to fusion research, I doubt that curing cancer is one of the real possibilities. Still, igniting fusion in your body *would* be likely to cure cancer. Corpses rarely have a problem with that.
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But yeah, proclamations like that carry the typical stink of sloppy science journalism that's more about getting attention than getting the science across.
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Could you please point out in the article where the phrase "cure cancer" appears?
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The article says "treating cancer", hence I'm pointing out that treatment isn't the same as curing.
In the medical sense, if you cure something, then it's gone. If you treat something then the situation the patient in is being improved. But not necessarily to the point that the cause of the problems is gone.
A cancer cure would indeed be revolutionary, but so far we only have cancer treatment. Sometimes the treat
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The thread title is "Can High-Powered Lasers Unlock the Secrets of Strong Field Quantum Electrodynamics?" I still don't see "cure cancer". And even if I did, focussing on that instead of the deeply interesting physics in question reminds me of the phrase "dogs watching television".
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Yeah, got that. Everybody could have been a bit more clear, or better yet, the OP could have just not posted that useless thing.
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There is "game-changers in applications that range from ... treating cancer...". That is close enough to "may cure cancer".
What I am commenting on here is the BS claims about what this may all do (or not), which is just bad writing, unless something specific is already known.
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Ah, I see what you meant. You properly criticized OP for conflating treatment with cure, for the purpose of ridicule. Yes, 100%, that was an idiotic post, just a pointless hijack. Pretty much par for the course here.
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Treating and curing aren't the same thing.
But yeah, proclamations like that carry the typical stink of sloppy science journalism that's more about getting attention than getting the science across.
Exactly.
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No, the claim is plausible. Could eventually be game-changers in applications that range from extending the reach of high-energy physics and of penetrating photon sources for precision imaging, to implanting ions in semiconductors, treating cancer, developing new pharmaceuticals, and more. [phys.org]
You could take that out of context with intent to ridicule, but why? This is phys.org reporting on Physical Review Letters, the latter not known for bullshit. Original publisher of much of Einstein's work for one thing.
Freakin' lasers are the answer to everything! (Score:2)
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Fun fact: when the laser was invented, it had no practical uses.
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Yeah, and here's another stunning revelation: electromagnetic waves are everywhere!
You can make light of them (Score:2)
and may cure cancer
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I once freaked out a spritual green anti-nuclear woman by telling her about neutrino flux
Say no to "codes"! (Score:1)
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It's code. Whoever started this use of the pluralized form (ca. 20 years ago by my estimate) wasn't a programmer. Code does not mean an app. It does not mean a program. Code is software. We don't say "softwares" either.
Reading this in context, it could represent more than one code because just prior to it, they use the word algorithms, meaning more than one algorithm. They could have used the word software, but that is a generic term. What kind of software? Adobe Photoshop? Microsoft Word? WinZIP?
While you're on this pedantic kick, just remember, there is no such thing as 12 AM or 12 PM. It's either 12 noon or 12 midnight.
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Another example: the use of "try and [accomplish some goal]" instead of the correct "try to [accomplish some goal]"
12AM and 12PM are by convention midnight and noon, respectively. That's the code.
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No, it's just "noon" or "midnight." The "12" is unnecessary since neither noon nor midnight occurs at any hours other than 12.
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I always find 12am or 12pm confusing. Sometimes context lets me resolve it, but for this, among other reasons, I prefer a 24 hour clock with one particular time, i.e. 00:00 or 24:00 having two different encodings depending on whether you're embedding it together with the current day or the prior day. (And this rarely shows up anyway, so it's not a real problem.) By convention I prefer 24:00 if there is no context demanding subsequent times in the same day. (It's also on two different dates, which can th
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Yikes (Score:2)
I'll bet they cautiously wince a little every time they turn that thing on.
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I bet they wear their safety glasses.
Any actual geeks here? (Score:2)
It's disappointing but not really surprising that there is not a single substantive comment posted to this article on this site, which is supposed to be technically oriented. I suppose that these days "technical" just means knowing how to use a cell phone to share memes.
For the record, this is about strong field quantum electrodynamics, a field esoteric enough that wikipedia does not have a dedicated page yet. But "at sufficiently high fields, even the vacuum becomes nonlinear", for starters. Heady stuff. W
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Well, so far this is just simulation, and it's well out of the specialty of essentially everybody here.
A classic in this field is "Geometrodynamics" by Wheeler, but it's a bit old (40 years now, I think). I haven't touched it since I was just out of college, and any technical comment I made would probably be wrong.
When you're talking about a specialty that probably has 40 practitioners in the world (it's a narrow sub-specialty) you should distrust *any* technical comment you find on a "general techie site"
95% of all statistics on the internet (Score:2)
Were made up on the spot.
Be that as it may, I don't think you need to be Maiman or Schrodinger, to realize there's a good chance when you up by three orders of a magnitude ,the electromagnetic field strength of light interacting with matter, you may just see new things.
WTH at the very least it should blow up good, real good.
Conundrum (Score:2)
"The scheme consists of boosting the intensity of a petawatt laser pulse with a relativistic plasma mirror. Such a mirror can be formed when an ultrahigh intensity laser beam hits an optically polished solid target. Due to the high laser amplitude, the solid target is fully ionized, forming a dense plasma that reflects the incident light. At the same time the reflecting surface is actually moved by the intense laser field. As a result of that motion, part of the reflected laser pulse is temporally compresse
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Technically we didn't take a picture of a black hole.
BTW being dogmatic is not a good look for anyone. Throwing those statements out there as if they are holy writ is laughable :Facepalm:
- Evolution is a lie.: Yes because that's what people were arguing about
- Science is all wrong.: Yep it's 100% right and tetra ethyl lead is perfectly safe in gasoline and sugar will help you lose weight.
- We can't make predictions based on scientific results.: Not like you can't make predictions on whatever you feel like,
I could understand expansion, but 'moving'? (Score:1)
I don't get it. If the laser was moving the plasma, wouldn't it move it away from the source, causing a longer wavelength from the Doppler effect?
For a moment there... (Score:1)