English

Drift Lagrangian for relativistic particle in intense laser field

Plasma Physics 2009-11-10 v1

Abstract

The Lagrangian and Hamiltonian functions describing average motion of a relativistic particle under the action of a slightly inhomogeneous intense laser field are obtained. In weak low-frequency background fields, such a particle on average drifts with an effective, relativistically invariant mass, which depends on the laser intensity. The essence of the proposed ponderomotive formulation is presented in a physically intuitive and mathematically simple form, yet represents a powerful tool for studying various nonlinear phenomena caused by interaction of currently available smooth ultra-intense laser pulses with plasmas.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.physics/0304079,
  title  = {Drift Lagrangian for relativistic particle in intense laser field},
  author = {I. Y. Dodin and N. J. Fisch and G. M. Fraiman},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/0304079},
  year   = {2009}
}