Lance Labun
Motivated by the need to predict plasma density and temperature distributions created in the early stages of high-intensity laser-plasma interactions, we develop a fluid model of plasma expansion into vacuum that incorporates external…
Laser wakefield accelerator experiments have made enormous progress over the past $\sim 20$ years, but their promise to revolutionize high-energy particle sources is only beginning to be realized. To make the next step toward engineering…
This document outlines a community-driven Design Study for a 10 TeV pCM Wakefield Accelerator Collider. The 2020 ESPP Report emphasized the need for Advanced Accelerator R\&D, and the 2023 P5 Report calls for the ``delivery of an end-to-end…
In an electron wakefield accelerator, an intense laser pulse or charged particle beam excites plasma waves. Under proper conditions, electrons from the background plasma are trapped in the plasma wave and accelerated to ultra-relativistic…
We discuss a scheme of nonperturbative pair production by high energy photons ($\omega\gtrsim m$) in a strong external field achievable at the next high intensity laser experiments. The pair momentum is boosted and for $\omega\gtrsim 1.2m$…
Using the external field method, {\it i.e.\/} evaluating the effective action $V_{\mathrm{eff}}$ for an arbitrarily strong constant and homogeneous field, we explore nonperturbative properties of QED allowing arbitrary gyromagnetic ratio…
We explore nonperturbative properties of QED allowing a gyromagnetic ratio $g\ne g_{\rm D}\equiv 2$. We study the effective action $V_{\mathrm{eff}}$ for an arbitrarily strong constant and homogeneous field. Using the external field method,…
The classical theory of single-electron dynamics in focused laser pulses is the foundation of both the relativistic ponderomotive force (RPF), which in turn underlies models of laser-collective-plasma dynamics, and the discovery of novel…
We show that universality near a critical end point implies a characteristic relation between third- and fourth-order baryon susceptibilities $\chi_3$ and $\chi_4$, resulting in a banana-shaped loop when $\chi_4$ is plotted as a function of…
We point out that neutrino oscillations imply an ambiguity in the definition of the vacuum and the coupling to gravity, with experimentally observable consequences due to the Unruh effect. In an accelerating frame, the detector should see a…
We discuss the inverse $\beta$-decay of accelerated protons in the context of neutrino oscillations. The process $p\rightarrow n \ell^+ \nu_\ell$ is kinematically allowed because the accelerating field provides the rest energy difference…
We evaluate the third- and fourth-order baryon, charge and strangeness susceptibilities near a chiral critical point using the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model. We identify robust qualitative behaviours of the susceptibilities along hypothetical…
We calculate model-independently the impact of the critical point on higher order baryon susceptibilities $\chi_n$, showing how they depend on fluctuations of the order parameter. Including all tree level diagrams, we find new contributions…
We study the impact of gravitational slingshot on the distribution of cold dark matter in early and modern era galaxies. Multiple gravitational encounters of a lower mass dark matter particle with massive baryonic astrophysical bodies would…
Mergers of binary neutron stars create conditions of supranuclear density $n\gtrsim n_{\rm nuc}\simeq 0.17 {\rm fm}^{-3}$ and moderate temperature $50\lesssim T \lesssim 90 {\rm MeV}$. These events thus probe a sensitive region of the…
We compute the dependence of the Higgs to two-photon decay rate $\Gamma_{h\to \gamma \gamma}$ on the top quark gyromagnetic factor $g_t$ in the heavy top limit and evaluate the expected change for one-loop SM correction to $g_t$. Our…
The electron vacuum fluctuations measured by $\cond$ do not vanish in an externally applied electric field $\calE$. For an exactly constant field, that is for vacuum fluctuations in presence of a constant accelerating force, we show that…
We propose a model of clustered u-d-s quark matter that leads to stable bulk strange quark matter. We discuss qualitatively consequences of impacts by sub-planetary mass strangelets on rocky solar system bodies.
Little is known about the physics frontier of strong acceleration; both classical and quantum physics need further development in order to be able to address this newly accessible area of physics. In this lecture we discuss what strong…
We study the top quark chromomagnetic factor $\kappa_t$-dependence of the effective interaction ${\cal L}_{hgg}$ and apply the result to the case of Higgs two gluon decay rate $\Gamma_{h\to gg}$. Perturbative standard model provides…