Related papers: On the physical (im)possibility of lightsabers
Recent simulations show that very large electric and magnetic fields near the kilo Tesla strength will likely be generated by ultra-intense lasers at existing facilities over distances of hundreds of microns in underdense plasmas. Stronger…
Understanding physics in domains of critical (quantum unstable) fields requires investigating the classical and quantum particle dynamics at the critical acceleration, $\dot u \to 1$ [natural units]. This regime of physics remains today…
Discussing the limitations on the validity of classical electrodynamics, we show that present day laser pulse technology applied to head-on-collisions with relativistic electrons generates fields strong enough to permit experimentation at…
Linear colliders (LC) on the energy 0.5-1 TeV are considered as the next step in the particle physics. High acceleration gradients, small beam sizes, precision tolerances, beam collision effects are main problems for linear colliders. In…
The conventional picture of the light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation (laser) is broken under the ultrastrong interaction between the electromagnetic fields and matter, and distinct dynamics of the electric field and of…
Upcoming high-intensity laser systems will be able to probe the quantum-induced nonlinear regime of electrodynamics. So far unobserved QED phenomena such as the discovery of a nonlinear response of the quantum vacuum to macroscopic…
Recent years have seen tremendous progress in our understanding of the cosmos, which in turn points to even deeper questions to be further addressed. Concurrently the laser technology has undergone dramatic revolutions, providing exciting…
A popular physics legend holds that scissors can cut paper with a speed faster than light. Here this counter-intuitive myth is investigated theoretically using four simple examples of scissors. For simplicity, all cases will involve a…
High intense electromagnetic fields can be unique probes to study natures of macroscopic vacua by themselves. Combining accelerators with the intense field can provide more fruitful probes which can neither be achieved by only intense…
Given that the dark matter and dark energy in the universe affect cosmological observables only gravitationally, their phenomenology may be described by a single stress energy tensor. True unification however requires a theory that…
Present low-energy bounds on Lorentz symmetry violation do not allow to exclude the possible existence of superluminal particles (superbradyons) with critical speed in vacuum $c_i \gg c$ (c = speed of light) whose kinematical properties…
Strong laser physics is a research direction that relies on the use of high-power lasers and has led to fascinating achievements ranging from relativistic particle acceleration to attosecond science. On the other hand, quantum optics has…
This article presents: 1) The theoretical background of strong field physics and vacuum structure and stability; 2) The instrumental developments in the area of pulse lasers and considers the physics case for ultra intense laser facilities;…
Using the laser backscattering method at future linear colliders one can obtain gamma-gamma and gamma-electron colliding beams (photon colliders) with energy and luminosity comparable to that in e^+e^- collisions. This option has been…
We point out that even the most intense laser beams available today can provide only a very small fraction of the beam energy required to reach the design luminosity for a future e+e- linear collider. This fact seems to have been overlooked…
We discuss the laser theory for a single-mode laser with nonlinear gain. We focus in particular on a micromaser which is pumped with a dilute beam of excited atoms crossing the laser cavity. In the weak-coupling regime, an expansion in the…
Dark matter is one of the most intriguing scientific mysteries of our time and offers exciting instructional opportunities for physics education in high schools. The topic is likely to engage and motivate students in the classroom and…
The question of whether it is possible or not to surpass the speed of light is already centennial. The special theory of relativity took the existence of a speed limit as a principle, the light postulate, which has proven to be enormously…
Accelerating particles to relativistic energies over very short distances using lasers has been a long standing goal in physics. Among the various schemes proposed for electrons, vacuum laser acceleration has attracted considerable interest…
With the aid of large-scale three-dimensional QED-PIC simulations, we describe a realistic experimental configuration to measure collective effects that couple strong field quantum electrodynamics to plasma kinetics. For two counter…