Quantum radiation reaction in laser-electron beam collisions
Plasma Physics
2015-03-04 v1 High Energy Physics - Theory
Abstract
It is possible using current high intensity laser facilities to reach the quantum radiation reaction regime for energetic electrons. An experiment using a wakefield accelerator to drive GeV electrons into a counterpropagating laser pulse would demonstrate the increase in the yield of high energy photons caused by the stochastic nature of quantum synchrotron emission: we show that a beam of 1 GeV electrons colliding with a 30 fs laser pulse of intensity will emit 6300 photons with energy greater than 700 MeV, the number predicted by classical theory.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1503.01009,
title = {Quantum radiation reaction in laser-electron beam collisions},
author = {T. G. Blackburn and C. P. Ridgers and J. G. Kirk and A. R. Bell},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1503.01009},
year = {2015}
}