Dense electron-positron plasmas and bursts of gamma-rays from laser-generated QED plasmas

TL;DR

This paper reports on simulations of ultra-intense laser interactions with solid targets, producing dense electron-positron plasmas and gamma-ray bursts, revealing a new regime of QED-plasma physics with significant energy conversion.

Contribution

It demonstrates the creation of extremely dense electron-positron plasmas and gamma-ray bursts at unprecedented laser intensities, highlighting a new QED-plasma regime with strong feedback effects.

Findings

10% of laser energy converted to gamma-rays at 12.5PW

Dense electron-positron plasma with density 10^26/m^3

40% of laser energy converted to gamma-rays at 320PW

Abstract

In simulations of a 12.5PW laser (focused intensity I = 4x10^23W/cm^2) striking a solid aluminium target 10% of the laser energy is converted to gamma-rays. A dense electron-positron plasma is generated with a maximum density of 10^26/m^3; seven orders of magnitude denser than pure e-e+ plasmas generated with 1PW lasers. When the laser power is increased to 320PW (I = 10^25W/cm^2) 40% of the laser energy is converted to gamma-ray photons and 10% to electron-positron pairs. In both cases there is strong feedback between the QED emission processes and the plasma physics; the defining feature of the new `QED-plasma' regime reached in these interactions.