Related papers: Towards critical and supercritical electromagnetic…
The cascaded production and dynamics of electron-positron plasma in ultimately focused laser fields of extreme intensity are studied by 3D particle-in-cell simulations with the account for the relevant processes of quantum electrodynamics…
Exploring quantum electrodynamics in the most extreme conditions, where electron-positron pairs can emerge in the presence of a strong background field, is now becoming possible in Compton collisions between ultraintense lasers and…
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…
Triggering vacuum breakdown at the upcoming laser facilities can provide rapid electron-positron pair production for studies in laboratory astrophysics and fundamental physics. However, the density of the emerging plasma should seemingly…
The field of laser-matter interaction traditionally deals with the response of atoms, molecules and plasmas to an external light wave. However, the recent sustained technological progress is opening up the possibility of employing intense…
Apart from maximizing the strength of optical electromagnetic fields achievable at high-intensity laser facilities, the collision of several phase-matched laser pulses has been theoretically identified as a trigger of and way to study…
We present a short review of recent progress in studying QED effects of interaction of ultra-relativistic laser pulses with vacuum and $e^-e^+$ plasma. The development of laser technologies promises very rapid growth of laser intensities in…
We propose the experiments on the collision of laser light and high intensity electromagnetic pulses generated by relativistic flying mirrors, with electron bunches produced by a conventional accelerator and with laser wake field…
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…
Circularly polarized colliding laser pulses can create abundant electron-positron pair plasma [A. R. Bell and J. G. Kirk, Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 200403 (2008)], which scattering the incoming electromagnetic waves can prevent them from…
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…
Since the invention of chirped pulse amplification, which was recognized by a Nobel prize in physics in 2018, there has been a continuing increase in available laser intensity. Combined with advances in our understanding of the kinetics of…
Since its birth, the laser has been extraordinarily effective in the study and applications of laser-matter interaction at the atomic and molecular level and in the nonlinear optics of the bound electron. In its early life, the laser was…
Recently much attention has being attracted to the problem of limitations on the attainable intensity of high power lasers [A.M. Fedotov {\it et al.} Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{105}, 080402 (2010)]. The laser energy can be absorbed by…
It is shown that even a single $e^-e^+$ pair created by a super strong laser field in vacuum would cause development of an avalanche-like QED cascade which rapidly depletes the incoming laser pulse. This confirms the old N. Bohr conjecture…
Novel emergent phenomena are expected to occur under conditions exceeding the QED critical electric field, where the vacuum becomes unstable to electron-positron pair production. The required intensity to reach this regime,…
It is conjectured that all perturbative approaches to quantum electrodynamics (QED) break down in the collision of a high-energy electron beam with an intense laser, when the laser fields are boosted to `supercritical' strengths far greater…
Reaching light intensities above $10^{25}$ W/cm$^{2}$ and up to the Schwinger limit ($10^{29}$ W/cm$^{2}$) would enable testing decades-old fundamental predictions of Quantum Electrodynamics. A promising yet challenging approach to achieve…
We examine a regime in which a linearly-polarized laser pulse with relativistic intensity irradiates a sub-critical plasma for much longer than the characteristic electron response time. A steady-state channel is formed in the plasma in…
In strong electromagnetic fields, unique plasma phenomena and applications emerge, whose description requires recently developed theories and simulations [Y. Shi, Ph.D. thesis, Princeton University (2018)]. In the classical regime, to…