Related papers: Giant collimated gamma-ray flashes
Very high energy (> 100 GeV) gamma-ray emission has been detected for the first time from the composite supernova remnant G0.9+0.1 using the H.E.S.S. instrument. The source is detected with a significance of 13 sigma, and a photon flux…
Recent observations of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have provided growing evidence for collimated outflows and emission, and strengthened the connection between GRBs and supernovae. If massive stars are the progenitors of GRBs, the hard photon…
Research in non-perturbative QED in strong-field backgrounds has gained interest in recent years, due to advances in high-intensity laser technologies that make extreme fields accessible in the laboratory. One key signature of strong-field…
One attractive scenario for the excess of sub-PeV/PeV neutrinos recently reported by IceCube is that they are produced by cosmic rays in starburst galaxies colliding with the dense interstellar medium. These proton-proton ($pp$) collisions…
We demonstrated for the first time the production of highly polarized short-pulse positrons with a finite energy spread in accordance with a new scheme that consists of two-quantum processes, such as inverse Compton scatterings and…
High harmonic generation traditionally combines ~100 near-infrared laser photons, to generate bright, phase matched, extreme ultraviolet beams when the emission from many atoms adds constructively. Here we show that by guiding a…
Gamma-ray binaries, composed of a massive star and compact object, have been established as a new class of sources of very high energy (VHE) photons. The gamma-rays are produced by inverse Compton scattering of the stellar light by VHE…
Recent results of the hectic research activity about gamma-ray bursts will be reviewed, with emphasis about the emission processes at the origin of the observed gamma-rays. The conventional synchrotron shock scenario is found to have…
Massive stars form in dense and massive molecular cores. The exact formation mechanism is unclear, but it is possible that some massive stars are formed by processes similar to those that produce the low-mass stars, with accretion/ejection…
A novel scheme for the creation of a convergent, or focussing, fast-electron beam generated from ultra-high-intensity laser-solid interactions is described. Self-consistent particle-in-cell simulations are used to demonstrate the efficacy…
Some recent experiments detecting very high energy (VHE) gamma-rays above 10-20 TeV independently reported VHE bursts for some of bright gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). If these signals are truly from GRBs, these GRBs must emit a much larger…
This dissertation explores the interaction between high-intensity lasers and plasmas to accelerate electrons and produce radiation via experimental and computational efforts. The laser pulses used in this dissertation have ultrashort…
High-harmonic generation is one of the most extreme nonlinear-optical processes observed to date. By focusing an intense laser pulse into a gas, the light-atom interaction that occurs during the process of ionising the atoms results in the…
The ultra-high energy cosmic rays observed at the Earth are most likely accelerated in extra-galactic sources. For the typical luminosities invoked for such sources, the electric current associated to the flux of cosmic rays that leave them…
The necessity for compact table-top x-ray sources with higher brightness, shorter wavelength and shorter pulse duration has led to the development of complementary sources based on laser-plasma accelerators, in contrast to conventional…
Active energy compression scheme is presently being investigated for future laser-plasma accelerators. This method enables generating laser-plasma accelerator electron beams with a small, $\sim 10^{-5}$, relative slice energy spread. When…
After comparing the flux densities of a sample of active galactic nuclei detected by energetic gamma-ray experiment telescope at 90 and 230 GHz with the $\gamma$-ray emissions detected by Compton Gamma Ray Observatory and x-ray emission, a…
Betatron X-ray radiation in laser-plasma accelerators is produced when electrons are accelerated and wiggled in the laser-wakefield cavity. This femtosecond source, producing intense X-ray beams in the multi kiloelectronvolt range has been…
We present optical, X-ray, high energy ($\lessapprox 30$ GeV) and very high energy ($\gtrapprox 100$ GeV; VHE) observations of the high-frequency peaked blazar Mrk 421 taken between 2008 May 24 and June 23. A high energy $\gamma$-ray signal…
Accreting sources such as AGN, X-ray binaries or gamma-ray bursts are known to be strong, high energy emitters. The hard emission is though to originate from plasmas of thermal and/or non-thermal high energy particles. Not only does this…