English

Simulating Poynting Flux Acceleration in the Laboratory with Colliding Laser Pulses

Astrophysics 2008-11-26 v1

Abstract

We review recent PIC simulation results which show that double-sided irradiation of a thin over-dense plasma slab with ultra-intense laser pulses from both sides can lead to sustained comoving Poynting flux acceleration of electrons to energies much higher than the conventional ponderomotive limit. The result is a robust power-law electron momentum spectrum similar to astrophysical sources. We discuss future ultra-intense laser experiments that may be used to simulate astrophysical particle acceleration.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0611683,
  title  = {Simulating Poynting Flux Acceleration in the Laboratory with Colliding Laser Pulses},
  author = {Edison Liang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0611683},
  year   = {2008}
}

Comments

Paper accepted for publication in the Astrophysics and Space Science, Volume for HEDLA06 conference proceedings, edited by G. Kyrala, in press