First Petawatt Electron Beam Arrives, Ready To Rip Apart Matter and Space (science.org) 24
Petawatt lasers have already allowed scientists to "manipulate materials in new ways, emulate the conditions inside planets, and even split atoms," reports Science magazine. "Now, accelerator physicists have matched that feat, producing petawatt pulses of electrons that could also have spectacular applications..."
Described in a paper published Thursday in Physical Review Letters, the electron pulses last one-quadrillionth of a second but carry 100 kiloamps of current. "It's a supercool experiment," says Sergei Nagaitsev, an accelerator physicist at Brookhaven National Laboratory who was not involved in the work. Richard D'Arcy, a plasma accelerator physicist at the University of Oxford, adds, "It's not just an experimental demonstration of something interesting, it's a steppingstone on the way to megaamp beams." If achievable, those even more powerful beams might begin to perform extraordinary feats such as ripping particles out of empty space, he says...
[A]mped-up lasers would open the way to, for example, probing chemical processes as they happen, says Sergei Nagaitsev [an accelerator physicist at Brookhaven National Laboratory who was not involved in the experiment]. "These are the easy pickings." An ultraintense electron pulse could also be used to generate plasmas like those seen in astrophysics, such as the jets of matter and radiation that shoot out of certain stellar explosions at near-light-speed. Researchers need only fire the electron beam into the right target. "This is a fantastic relativistic drill," Ferrario says. "The interaction of this with matter could be very interesting."
Superintense electron bunches might someday even probe the nature of empty space. They produce a hugely intense electric field, so if one of them were to collide with an ultraintense laser pulse, which also contains a huge electric field, it would expose space to an incredibly strong electrical polarization, D'Arcy notes. If that field is strong enough, it should begin to rip particle-antiparticle pairs out of the vacuum, a phenomenon predicted by quantum physics but never observed. "You can access areas of particle physics that are inaccessible elsewhere," Darcy says.
Thanks to Slashdot reader sciencehabit for sharing the article.
[A]mped-up lasers would open the way to, for example, probing chemical processes as they happen, says Sergei Nagaitsev [an accelerator physicist at Brookhaven National Laboratory who was not involved in the experiment]. "These are the easy pickings." An ultraintense electron pulse could also be used to generate plasmas like those seen in astrophysics, such as the jets of matter and radiation that shoot out of certain stellar explosions at near-light-speed. Researchers need only fire the electron beam into the right target. "This is a fantastic relativistic drill," Ferrario says. "The interaction of this with matter could be very interesting."
Superintense electron bunches might someday even probe the nature of empty space. They produce a hugely intense electric field, so if one of them were to collide with an ultraintense laser pulse, which also contains a huge electric field, it would expose space to an incredibly strong electrical polarization, D'Arcy notes. If that field is strong enough, it should begin to rip particle-antiparticle pairs out of the vacuum, a phenomenon predicted by quantum physics but never observed. "You can access areas of particle physics that are inaccessible elsewhere," Darcy says.
Thanks to Slashdot reader sciencehabit for sharing the article.
Hope they can keep their funding... (Score:3)
Re: Hope they can keep their funding... (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
I'm not sure even DoD funding for this would be safe any more.
Well, I would think DoE (Department of Energy), not the DoD, was the primary funding agency. However, as the science parts of the national labs (such as SLAC which was mentioned here) do fundamental research, which does not have any clear ROI, nor does the science have a clear national defense support function, funding may not be safe (to be fair, the funding is never exactly safe, but as with other science agencies, the long term value to the country was understood in most previous cycles).
Re: (Score:2)
IIUC, traveling via wormholes is expected to take LONGER that traveling through normal space-time. But it might let you reach areas inaccessible via travel in normal space-time.
OTOH, whether it's really possible to stabilize a wormhole is uncertain. Still, there's some (theoretic) evidence that it's possible to send a signal back before the collapse happens. That's not exactly stabilizing it, of course. And (IIRC, the article I read was a few years ago) the collapse is triggered by the first particle to
but don't cross the streams (Score:2)
Spengler: It would be bad.
Venkman: I'm fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing. What do you mean, "bad"?
Spengler: Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously, and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.
Stantz: [shocked gasp] Total protonic reversal.
Venkman: Right. That's bad. Okay. All right. Important safety tip.
The scientists are chanting (Score:1)
"pew pew pew, kashooom! pew pew pew, kashooom!..."
Time to upgrade my sharks (Score:3)
My laser sharks were just about ready and you tell me I need to upgrade them to electron beam sharks. When will the upgrade treadmill end!?
Dr. Buckaroo Banzai (Score:4, Funny)
Did they just invent phasers? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Just don't try to carry around the power supply.
Re:"space" cannot be ripped. (Score:4, Informative)
"Space" is just the 3 dimensions
Science calls this 'space-time' because time and space are inseparable. So, four dimensions.
Ripping apart a coordinate system makes no sense whatsoever.
According to quantum theory, even 'empty' space is a very busy place, with subatomic particles and their corresponding opposites are busy popping into existence and then annihilating eachother. Apply a significantly strong force - like say gravity at the event horizon of a black hole - and the particle/antiparticle pairs will become separated, creating forms of matter from 'nothing'. The theory is that this will create a 'glow' of new particles at the event horizon.
So, 'ripping apart a coordinate system' is not as crazy as you try to make it sound.
Science: it' full of neat stuff!
Re: "space" cannot be ripped. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Oh, you are one of those. There is no point in even trying to have a rational discussion with you, since you are neither interested in nor capable of having one in the first place. Bye.