Antony Ilderton

Anomalous Radiative Trapping in Laser Fields of Extreme Intensity

We demonstrate that charged particles in a sufficiently intense standing wave are compressed toward, and oscillate synchronously at, the antinodes of the electric field. We call this unusual behavior anomalous radiative trapping (ART). We show using dipole pulses, which offer a path to increased laser intensity, that ART opens up new possibilities for the generation of radiation and particle beams, both of which are high energy, directed, and collimated. ART also provides a mechanism for particle control in high-intensity quantum-electrodynamics experiments.

Extended particle-in-cell schemes for physics in ultrastrong laser fields: Review and developments

We review common extensions of particle-in-cell (PIC) schemes which account for strong field phenomena in laser-plasma interactions. After describing the physical processes of interest and their numerical implementation, we provide solutions for several associated methodological and algorithmic problems. We propose a modified event generator that precisely models the entire spectrum of incoherent particle emission without any low-energy cutoff, and which imposes close to the weakest possible demands on the numerical time step. Based on this, we also develop an adaptive event generator that subdivides the time step for locally resolving QED events, allowing for efficient simulation of cascades. Further, we present a unified technical interface for including the processes of interest in different PIC implementations. Two PIC codes which support this interface, PICADOR and ELMIS, are also briefly reviewed.

Radiation reaction in strong field QED

We derive radiation reaction from QED in a strong background field. We identify, in general, the diagrams and processes contributing to recoil effects in the average momentum of a scattered electron, using perturbation theory in the Furry picture: we work to lowest nontrivial order in a. For the explicit example of scattering in a plane wave background, we compare QED with classical electrodynamics in the limit h -> 0, finding agreement with the Lorentz-Abraham-Dirac and Landau-Lifshitz equations, and with Larmors formula. The first quantum corrections are also presented.

Probing Nonperturbative QED with Optimally Focused Laser Pulses

We study nonperturbative pair production in intense, focused laser fields called e-dipole pulses. We address the conditions required, such as the quality of the vacuum, for reaching high intensities without initiating beam-depleting cascades, the number of pairs which can be created, and experimental detection of the created pairs. We find that e-dipole pulses offer an optimal method of investigating nonperturbative QED.

Radiation reaction from QED: lightfront perturbation theory in a plane wave background

We derive dynamical, real time radiation reaction effects from lightfront QED. Combining the Hamiltonian formalism with a plane wave background field, the calculation is performed in the Furry picture for which the background is treated exactly while interactions between quantum fields are treated in perturbation theory as normal. We work to a fixed order in perturbation theory, but no other approximation is made. The literature contains many proposals for the correct classical equation describing a radiating particle; we take the classical limit of our results and identify which equations are consistent with QED.

Quantum radiation reaction: from interference to incoherence

We investigate quantum radiation reaction in laser-electron interactions across different energy and intensity regimes. Using a fully quantum approach which also accounts exactly for the effect of the strong laser pulse on the electron motion, we identify in particular a regime in which radiation reaction is dominated by quantum interference. We find signatures of quantum radiation reaction in the electron spectra which have no classical analogue and which cannot be captured by the incoherent approximations typically used in the high-intensity regime. These signatures are measurable with presently available laser and accelerator technology.

Testing numerical implementations of strong field electrodynamics

We test current numerical implementations of laser-matter interactions by comparison with exact analytical results. Focusing on photon emission processes, it is found that the numerics accurately reproduce analytical emission spectra in all considered regimes, except for the harmonic structures often singled out as the most significant high-intensity (multiphoton) effects. We find that this discrepancy originates in the use of the locally constant field approximation.

Experimental evidence of radiation reaction in the collision of a high-intensity laser pulse with a laser-wakefield accelerated electron beam

The dynamics of energetic particles in strong electromagnetic fields can be heavily influenced by the energy loss arising from the emission of radiation during acceleration, known as radiation reaction. When interacting with a high-energy electron beam, todays lasers are sufficiently intense to explore the transition between the classical and quantum radiation reaction regimes. We present evidence of radiation reaction in the collision of an ultrarelativistic electron beam generated by laser-wakefield acceleration (epsilon > 500 MeV) with an intense laser pulse (a(0) > 10). We measure an energy loss in the postcollision electron spectrum that is correlated with the detected signal of hard photons (gamma rays), consistent with a quantum description of radiation reaction. The generated gamma rays have the highest energies yet reported from an all-optical inverse Compton scattering scheme, with critical energy epsilon(crit) > 30 MeV.

Ultrabright GeV Photon Source via Controlled Electromagnetic Cascades in Laser-Dipole Waves

Electromagnetic cascades have the potential to act as a high-energy photon source of unprecedented brightness. Such a source would offer new experimental possibilities in fundamental science, but in the cascade process radiation reaction and rapid electron-positron plasma production seemingly restrict the efficient production of photons to sub-GeV energies. Here, we show how to overcome these energetic restrictions and how to create a directed GeV photon source, with unique capabilities as compared to existing sources. Our new source concept is based on a controlled interplay between the cascade and anomalous radiative trapping. Using specially designed advanced numerical models supported with analytical estimates, we demonstrate that the concept becomes feasible at laser powers of around 7 PW, which is accessible at soon-to-be-available facilities. A higher peak power of 40 PW can provide 10(9) photons with GeV energies in a well-collimated 3-fs beam, achieving peak brilliance 9 x 10(24) ph s(-1) mrad(-2) mm(-2)/0.1%BW.

Localisation in worldline pair production and lightfront zero-modes

A bstractThe nonperturbative probability of pair production in electric fields depending on lightfront time is given exactly by the locally constant approximation. We explain this by showing that the worldline path integral defining the effective action contains a constraint, which localises contributing paths on hypersurfaces of constant lightfront time. These paths are lightfront zero-modes and there can be no pair production without them; the effective action vanishes if they are projected out.