Related papers: A Green Laser Pointer Hazard
We searched high resolution spectra of 5600 nearby stars for emission lines that are both inconsistent with a natural origin and unresolved spatially, as would be expected from extraterrestrial optical lasers. The spectra were obtained with…
The paper reports the results of numerical studies on the generation of heavy ions from a sub-micrometre gold target irradiated by a high-energy (60 J) high-intensity (~ 2 x 10^20 W/cm2) sub-ps laser pulse. The properties of the heavy ion…
In this paper, we investigate the detectability of radio emission from exoplanets, especially hot Jupiters, which are magnified by gravitational microlensing. Because hot Jupiters have orbital periods much shorter than the characteristic…
We clarify how intense laser irradiation leads to an enhancement of rare processes that may occur within atoms. Non-perturbative calculation using a coherent laser beam gives an exact, time dependent formula of the enhancement factor in the…
Lead fluoride (PbF$_2$) crystals represent an excellent and relatively innovative choice for high resolution electromagnetic calorimeters with high granularity and fast timing for high intensity environments. For this reason two PbF$_2$…
Published EGRET spectra from blazars extend only to 10 GeV, yet EGRET has detected approximately 2000 gamma-rays above 10 GeV of which about half are at high Galactic latitude. We report a search of these high-energy gamma-rays for…
Gamma rays from young pulsars and milli-second pulsars are expected to contribute to the diffuse gamma-ray emission measured by the {\it Fermi} Large Area Telescope (LAT) at high latitudes. We derive the contribution of the pulsars…
Microquasars are sources of very high-energy gamma-rays and, very probably, high-energy gamma-ray emitters. We propose a model for a jet that can allow to give accurate observational predictions for jet emission at different energies and…
The possible association between the microquasar LS 5039 and the EGRET source 3EG J1824-1514 suggests that microquasars could also be sources of high energy gamma-rays. In this paper, we explore, with a detailed numerical model, if this…
We report a source of free electron pulses based on a field emission tip irradiated by a low-power femtosecond laser. The electron pulses are shorter than 70 fs and originate from a tip with an emission area diameter down to 2 nm. Depending…
Ground- and space-based observations of solar flares from radio wavelengths to gamma-rays have produced considerable insights but raised several unsolved controversies. The last unexplored wavelength frontier for solar flares is in the…
For high-precision cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments, contamination from extragalactic point sources is a major concern. It is therefore useful to be able to detect and discard point source contaminated pixels using the map…
In this article, we report rather long time emission ($\sim$ 250 $\mu s$) from aluminum neutrals (Al I) in ns laser produced plasma in the presence of ambient argon. The study is carried out with varying laser power density, background…
In this paper, we demonstrate a low-cost method to measure the speed of light. It uses instruments which are readily available in any undergraduate laboratory in a developing country and some components which are inexpensive. The method is…
We report the discovery of gamma-ray pulsations from the nearby isolated millisecond pulsar PSR J0030+0451 with the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on the \emph{Fermi} Gamma-ray Space Telescope (formerly GLAST). This discovery makes PSR…
The intensity noise of a laser source represents one of the key factors limiting the ultimate sensitivity in laser-based systems for sensing and telecommunication. For advanced applications based on interferometry, the availability of a…
The role that the quantum properties of a gravitational wave could play in the detection of gravitational radiation is analyzed. It is not only corroborated that in the current laser-interferometric detectors the resolution of the…
We report on mid-infrared imaging of hot cores performed with SpectroCam-10 and TIMMI2. The observations aimed at the detection of thermal emission presumably associated with the hot cores. Mid-infrared flux measurements are required to…
Luminescence as a mechanism for terahertz emission from femtosecond laser-induced plasmas is studied. By using a fully microscopic theory, Coulomb scattering between electrons and ions is shown to lead to luminescence even for a spatially…
The electron density close to the extraction grids and the co-extracted electrons represent a crucial issue when operating negative ion sources for fusion reactors. An excessive electron density in the plasma expansion region can indeed…