Feasibility of optical probing of relativistic plasma singularities

TL;DR

This paper investigates the potential of ultrafast optical probing to detect relativistic plasma singularities, which are difficult to observe directly due to their extreme properties, using PIC simulations to demonstrate feasibility.

Contribution

The study proposes and validates, through simulations, a novel ultrafast optical diagnostic method for observing relativistic plasma singularities.

Findings

Optical probing can identify plasma singularities.

Simulations confirm feasibility of the diagnostic approach.

Relativistic plasma singularities produce detectable optical signals.

Abstract

Singularities in multi-stream flows of relativistic plasmas can efficiently produce coherent high-frequency radiation, as exemplified in the concepts of Relativistic Flying Mirror [S. V. Bulanov, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 085001 (2003)] and Burst Intensification by Singularity Emitting Radiation (BISER) [Pirozhkov, et al., Scientific Reports 7, 17968 (2017)]. Direct observation of these singularities is challenging due to their extreme sharpness (tens of nanometers), relativistic velocity, and transient non-local nature. We propose to use ultrafast (a few light cycles) optical probe for identifying relativistic plasma singularities. Our Particle-in-Cell (PIC) simulations show that this diagnostic is feasible.