We are familiar with the reverse process—matter generating energy—in everything from a campfire to an atomic bomb, but it has been difficult to recreate that critical transformation of light into matter. Now, a new set of simulations by a research team led by UC San Diego's Alexey Arefiev point the way toward making matter from light. The process starts by aiming a high-power laser at a target to generate a magnetic field as strong as that of a neutron star. This field generates gamma ray emissions that collide to produce—for the very briefest instant—pairs of matter and antimatter particles.
High-intensity, ultra-short laser pulses aimed at a dense target can render the target "relativistically transparent," as the electrons in the laser move at a velocity very close to the speed of light and effectively become heavier, Arefiev explained. This keeps the laser's electrons from moving to shield the target from the laser's light. As the laser pushes past these electrons, it generates a magnetic field as strong as the pull on the surface of a neutron star—100 million times stronger than Earth's magnetic field.
The study, published May 11 in Physical Review Applied offers a sort of recipe that experimentalists at the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) high-power laser facilities in Eastern Europe could follow to produce real results in one to two years, said Arefiev, an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering.
Read More: https://phys.org/news/2020-05-high-power-laser-simulations.html
High-intensity, ultra-short laser pulses aimed at a dense target can render the target "relativistically transparent," as the electrons in the laser move at a velocity very close to the speed of light and effectively become heavier, Arefiev explained. This keeps the laser's electrons from moving to shield the target from the laser's light. As the laser pushes past these electrons, it generates a magnetic field as strong as the pull on the surface of a neutron star—100 million times stronger than Earth's magnetic field.
The study, published May 11 in Physical Review Applied offers a sort of recipe that experimentalists at the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) high-power laser facilities in Eastern Europe could follow to produce real results in one to two years, said Arefiev, an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering.
Read More: https://phys.org/news/2020-05-high-power-laser-simulations.html
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