Collective plasma effects of electron-positron pairs in beam-driven QED cascades

TL;DR

This paper investigates how electron-positron pair plasmas are generated through beam-driven QED cascades, highlighting the collective plasma effects and laser frequency upshifts observed in detailed 3D simulations, relevant for astrophysical and laboratory conditions.

Contribution

It provides detailed 3D QED-PIC simulation results demonstrating pair plasma creation and collective effects in beam-driven QED cascades, with implications for high-intensity laser experiments.

Findings

High pair particle density achieved in simulations

Large collective plasma effects observed

Finite laser frequency upshift demonstrated

Abstract

Understanding the interplay of strong-field QED and collective plasma effects is important for explaining extreme astrophysical environments like magnetars. It has been shown that QED pair plasmas is possible to be produced and observed by passing a relativistic electron beam through an intense laser field. This paper presents in detail multiple sets of 3D QED-PIC simulations to show the creation of pair plasmas in the QED cascade. The beam driven method enables a high pair particle density and also a low particle gamma factor, which both play equal rolls on exhibiting large collective plasma effects. Finite laser frequency upshift is observed with both ideal parameters (24 PW laser laser colliding with 300 GeV electron beam) and with existing technologies (3 PW laser laser colliding with 30 GeV electron beam).