Related papers: Quantum Plasma Creation near a Magnetar
We present a global kinetic plasma simulation of an axisymmetric pulsar magnetosphere with self-consistent $e^\pm$ pair production. We use the particle-in-cell method and log-spherical coordinates with a grid size $4096\times 4096$. This…
Over the last four decades, persistent and flaring emission of magnetars observed by various telescopes has provided us with a suite of light curves and spectra in soft and hard X-rays, with no emission yet detected above around 1 MeV.…
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…
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…
In simulations of a 12.5PW laser (focused intensity I = 4x10^23W/cm^2) striking a solid aluminium target 10% of the laser energy is converted to gamma-rays. A dense electron-positron plasma is generated with a maximum density of 10^26/m^3;…
Developments over the last couple of years have supported the interpretation that anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) and soft gamma repeaters (SGRs) possess unusually high magnetic fields, and furthermore may represent a class or classes of…
Converting light into matter has been a longstanding goal in physics, particularly the creation of electron-positron pairs through quantum electrodynamic (QED) processes. While current approaches using multiple colliding laser pulses can…
The formation of $e^\pm$ plasmas within pulsar magnetospheres through quantum electrodynamics (QED) cascades in vacuum gaps is widely acknowledged. This paper aims to investigate the effect of photon polarization during the QED cascade…
We present numerical simulations of the electron-positron plasma creation process in a simple neutron star magnetosphere. We have developed a set of cascade `kernels', which represent the endpoint of the pair cascades resulting from…
In the present work one- and two-photon pair production in a subcritical magnetic field have been considered. Two-photon production has been studied in the resonant case, when the cross section considerably increases compared to the…
We predict the existence of new nonlinear electromagnetic wave modes in pair plasmas. The plasma may be either non-magnetized or immersed in an external magnetic field. The existence of these modes depends on the interaction of an intense…
Ultra-magnetized plasmas, where the magnetic field strength exceeds the Schwinger field of about $B_{Q}\approx4\times10^{13}$~gauss, become of great scientific interest, thanks to the current advances in laser-plasma experiments and…
A model is proposed for the observed combination of power-law and thermal emission of keV X-rays from rotationally powered pulsars. For gamma-ray pulsars with accelerators very many stellar radii above the neutron star surface, 100 MeV…
We present for the first time the nonlinear dynamics of quantum electrodynamic (QED) photon splitting in a strongly magnetized electron-positron (pair) plasma. By using a QED corrected Maxwell equation, we derive a set of equations that…
Neutron stars have inferred surface magnetic fields of up to 10^{14} Gauss, in the case of radio pulsars, and up to possibly 10^{15} Gauss, in the case of Soft Gamma-Ray Repeaters and Anomalous X-ray Pulsars. In fields this high, QED…
Creating a plasma dominated by strong-field QED (SFQED) effects is a major goal of new multi-PW laser facilities. This is motivated by the fact that the fundamental dynamics of such plasmas is poorly understood and plays an important role…
We use the outer gap model to explain the spectrum and the energy dependent light curves of the X-ray and soft gamma-ray radiations of the spin-down powered pulsar PSR B1509-58. In the outer gap model, most pairs inside the gap are created…
Observing collective effects originating from the interplay between quantum electrodynamics and plasma physics might be achieved in upcoming experiments. In particular, the generation of electron-positron pairs and the observation of their…
Radiation losses in the interaction of superintense circularly polarized laser pulses with high-density plasmas can lead to the generation of strong quasistatic magnetic fields via absorption of the photon angular momentum (so called…
Ultrafast strong-field laser--plasma physics is shown to offer a promising framework for relativistic nonlinear quantum electrodynamics (QED). As one of its key advantages, this approach to relativistic nonlinear QED does not require an…