QED cascade saturation in extreme high fields

Wen Luo; Wei-Yuan Liu; Tao Yuan; Min Chen; Ji-Ye Yu; Fei-Yu Li; D Del Sorbo; C P Ridgers; Zheng-Ming Sheng

doi:10.1038/s41598-018-26785-8

QED cascade saturation in extreme high fields

Sci Rep. 2018 May 30;8(1):8400. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-26785-8.

Authors

Wen Luo^{1

2}, Wei-Yuan Liu^{3

4}, Tao Yuan^{4

5}, Min Chen^{6

7}, Ji-Ye Yu^{4

5}, Fei-Yu Li⁸, D Del Sorbo⁹, C P Ridgers⁹, Zheng-Ming Sheng^{4

8

5}

Affiliations

¹ School of Nuclear Science and Technology, University of South China, Hengyang, 421001, China. wen.luo@usc.edu.cn.
² SUPA, Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, G40NG, United Kingdom. wen.luo@usc.edu.cn.
³ School of Nuclear Science and Technology, University of South China, Hengyang, 421001, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory for Laser Plasmas (MoE), School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China.
⁵ IFSA Collaborative Innovation Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China.
⁶ Key Laboratory for Laser Plasmas (MoE), School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China. minchen@sjtu.edu.cn.
⁷ IFSA Collaborative Innovation Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China. minchen@sjtu.edu.cn.
⁸ SUPA, Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, G40NG, United Kingdom.
⁹ York Plasma Institute, Physics Department, University of York, York, YO10 5DQ, United Kingdom.

Abstract

Upcoming ultrahigh power lasers at 10 PW level will make it possible to experimentally explore electron-positron (e^-e⁺) pair cascades and subsequent relativistic e^-e⁺ jets formation, which are supposed to occur in extreme astrophysical environments, such as black holes, pulsars, quasars and gamma-ray bursts. In the latter case it is a long-standing question as to how the relativistic jets are formed and what their temperatures and compositions are. Here we report simulation results of pair cascades in two counter-propagating QED-strong laser fields. A scaling of QED cascade growth with laser intensity is found, showing clear cascade saturation above threshold intensity of ~10²⁴ W/cm². QED cascade saturation leads to pair plasma cooling and longitudinal compression along the laser axis, resulting in the subsequent formation of relativistic dense e^-e⁺ jets along transverse directions. Such laser-driven QED cascade saturation may open up the opportunity to study energetic astrophysical phenomena in laboratory.