Simulations of relativistic quantum plasmas using real-time lattice scalar QED

Shi, Yuan; Xiao, Jianyuan; Qin, Hong; Fisch, Nathaniel J.

doi:10.1103/PhysRevE.97.053206

Title: Simulations of relativistic quantum plasmas using real-time lattice scalar QED

Journal Article · Wed May 09 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Physical Review E

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.97.053206· OSTI ID:1465665

Shi, Yuan ^[1]; Xiao, Jianyuan ^[2]; Qin, Hong ^[3]; Fisch, Nathaniel J. ^[1]

Princeton Univ., NJ (United States). Dept. of Astrophysical Sciences; Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
Univ. of Science and Technology of China, Hefei (China). School of Nuclear Science and Technology and Dept. of Modern Physics
Princeton Univ., NJ (United States). Dept. of Astrophysical Sciences; Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States); Univ. of Science and Technology of China, Hefei (China). School of Nuclear Science and Technology and Dept. of Modern Physics

Real-time lattice quantum electrodynamics (QED) provides a unique tool for simulating plasmas in the strong-field regime, where collective plasma scales are not well separated from relativistic-quantum scales. As a toy model, we study scalar QED, which describes self-consistent interactions between charged bosons and electromagnetic fields. To solve this model on a computer, we first discretize the scalar-QED action on a lattice, in a way that respects geometric structures of exterior calculus and U(1)-gauge symmetry. The lattice scalar QED can then be solved, in the classical-statistics regime, by advancing an ensemble of statistically equivalent initial conditions in time, using classical field equations obtained by extremizing the discrete action. To demonstrate the capability of our numerical scheme, we apply it to two example problems. The first example is the propagation of linear waves, where we recover analytic wave dispersion relations using numerical spectrum. The second example is an intense laser interacting with a one-dimensional plasma slab, where we demonstrate natural transition from wakefield acceleration to pair production when the wave amplitude exceeds the Schwinger threshold. Our real-time lattice scheme is fully explicit and respects local conservation laws, making it reliable for long-time dynamics. The algorithm is readily parallelized using domain decomposition, and the ensemble may also be computed using quantum parallelism in the future.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

View Accepted Manuscript (Publisher)

Cite

Export

Save

Research Organization:: Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC); Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS); Chinese Scholar Council (CSC); Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)

Grant/Contract Number:: NA0002948; AC02-09CH11466; NSFC-11575185; 11575186; 11305171; NSFC-11261140328; QYZDB-SSW-SYS004; 201506340103; 2015GB111003; 2014GB124005

OSTI ID:: 1465665

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1436538

Journal Information:: Physical Review E, Vol. 97, Issue 5; ISSN 2470-0045

Publisher:: American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Citation Metrics:

Cited by: 18 works

Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (61)

Laser Field Absorption in Self-Generated Electron-Positron Pair Plasma Nerush, E. N.; Kostyukov, I. Yu.; Fedotov, A. M. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 106, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.035001	journal	January 2011
Pair Production by Ultraintense Lasers Liang, Edison P.; Wilks, Scott C.; Tabak, Max Physical Review Letters, Vol. 81, Issue 22 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.81.4887	journal	November 1998
Momentum Signatures for Schwinger Pair Production in Short Laser Pulses with a Subcycle Structure Hebenstreit, F.; Alkofer, R.; Dunne, G. V. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 102, Issue 15 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.150404	journal	April 2009
Boltzmann equation in classical and quantum field theory Jeon, Sangyong Physical Review C, Vol. 72, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.72.014907	journal	July 2005
Quantum Effects with an X-Ray Free-Electron Laser Roberts, C. D.; Schmidt, S. M.; Vinnik, D. V. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 89, Issue 15 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.153901	journal	September 2002
High e+/e− Ratio Dense Pair Creation with 1021W.cm−2 Laser Irradiating Solid Targets Liang, E.; Clarke, T.; Henderson, A. Scientific Reports, Vol. 5, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/srep13968	journal	September 2015
Isolated attosecond pulses generated by relativistic effects in a wavelength-cubed focal volume Naumova, Natalia M.; Nees, John A.; Hou, Bixue Optics Letters, Vol. 29, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.29.000778	journal	January 2004
Laser wake field acceleration: the highly non-linear broken-wave regime Pukhov, A.; Meyer-ter-Vehn, J. Applied Physics B: Lasers and Optics, Vol. 74, Issue 4-5 https://doi.org/10.1007/s003400200795	journal	April 2002
Fermion production from real-time lattice gauge theory in the classical-statistical regime Kasper, V.; Hebenstreit, F.; Berges, J. Physical Review D, Vol. 90, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.90.025016	journal	July 2014
Electron acceleration by a laser pulse in a plasma McKinstrie, C. J.; Startsev, E. A. Physical Review E, Vol. 54, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.54.R1070	journal	August 1996
Quantum versus classical statistical dynamics of an ultracold Bose gas Berges, Jürgen; Gasenzer, Thomas Physical Review A, Vol. 76, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.76.033604	journal	September 2007
An introduction to chiral symmetry on the lattice Chandrasekharan, S. Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physics, Vol. 53, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ppnp.2004.05.003	journal	October 2004
Frequency Up-Conversion of Electromagnetic Radiation with Use of an Overdense Plasma Wilks, S. C.; Dawson, J. M.; Mori, W. B. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 61, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.61.337	journal	July 1988
Schwinger pair production in space- and time-dependent electric fields: Relating the Wigner formalism to quantum kinetic theory Hebenstreit, F.; Alkofer, R.; Gies, H. Physical Review D, Vol. 82, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.82.105026	journal	November 2010
On Gauge Invariance and Vacuum Polarization Schwinger, Julian Physical Review, Vol. 82, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRev.82.664	journal	June 1951
Canonical symplectic particle-in-cell method for long-term large-scale simulations of the Vlasov–Maxwell equations Qin, Hong; Liu, Jian; Xiao, Jianyuan Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 56, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1088/0029-5515/56/1/014001	journal	December 2015
Numerical solution of initial boundary value problems involving maxwell's equations in isotropic media IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 14, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1109/TAP.1966.1138693	journal	May 1966
Quantum mechanical computers Feynman, Richard P. Foundations of Physics, Vol. 16, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01886518	journal	June 1986
Classical Aspects of Quantum Fields Far from Equilibrium Aarts, Gert; Berges, Jürgen Physical Review Letters, Vol. 88, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.041603	journal	January 2002
Basin of attraction for turbulent thermalization and the range of validity of classical-statistical simulations Berges, J.; Boguslavski, K.; Schlichting, S. Journal of High Energy Physics, Vol. 2014, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP05(2014)054	journal	May 2014
A no-go theorem for regularizing chiral fermions Nielsen, H. B.; Ninomiya, M. Physics Letters B, Vol. 105, Issue 2-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/0370-2693(81)91026-1	journal	October 1981
Response theory of particle-anti-particle plasmas Kowalenko, Victor; Frankel, Norman E.; Hines, Kenneth C. Physics Reports, Vol. 126, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1016/0370-1573(85)90097-3	journal	September 1985
Simulating fermion production in $1 + 1$ dimensional QED Hebenstreit, F.; Berges, J.; Gelfand, D. Physical Review D, Vol. 87, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.87.105006	journal	May 2013
Formulation of the Schwinger mechanism in classical statistical field theory Gelis, François; Tanji, Naoto Physical Review D, Vol. 87, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.87.125035	journal	June 2013
Generation of neutral and high-density electron–positron pair plasmas in the laboratory Sarri, G.; Poder, K.; Cole, J. M. Nature Communications, Vol. 6, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms7747	journal	April 2015
Monte Carlo calculations of pair production in high-intensity laser–plasma interactions Duclous, R.; Kirk, J. G.; Bell, A. R. Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, Vol. 53, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1088/0741-3335/53/1/015009	journal	November 2010
Explicit high-order non-canonical symplectic particle-in-cell algorithms for Vlasov-Maxwell systems Xiao, Jianyuan; Qin, Hong; Liu, Jian Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 22, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4935904	journal	November 2015
Signatures of quark-gluon plasma formation in high energy heavy-ion collisions: a critical review Bass, S. A.; Gyulassy, M.; Stöcker, H. Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics, Vol. 25, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1088/0954-3899/25/3/013	journal	January 1999
Quantum corrections to the dynamics of interacting bosons: Beyond the truncated Wigner approximation Polkovnikov, Anatoli Physical Review A, Vol. 68, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.68.053604	journal	November 2003
Relativistic charged Bose gas Hines, D. F.; Frabkel, N. E. Physics Letters A, Vol. 69, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1016/0375-9601(78)90193-7	journal	December 1978
Colour deconfinement in nuclear collisions Satz, Helmut Reports on Progress in Physics, Vol. 63, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1088/0034-4885/63/9/203	journal	August 2000
Monte Carlo study of quantized SU(2) gauge theory Creutz, Michael Physical Review D, Vol. 21, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.21.2308	journal	April 1980
Dense Electron-Positron Plasmas and Ultraintense $γ$ rays from Laser-Irradiated Solids Ridgers, C. P.; Brady, C. S.; Duclous, R. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 108, Issue 16 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.165006	journal	April 2012
Damping of linear waves via ionization and recombination in homogeneous plasmas Dodin, I. Y.; Fisch, N. J. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 17, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3514166	journal	November 2010
Relativistic laser-plasma interactions in the quantum regime Eliasson, Bengt; Shukla, P. K. Physical Review E, Vol. 83, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.83.046407	journal	April 2011
A variational multi-symplectic particle-in-cell algorithm with smoothing functions for the Vlasov-Maxwell system Xiao, Jianyuan; Liu, Jian; Qin, Hong Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 20, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4826218	journal	October 2013
High-Energy Trident Production with Definite Helicities Bjorken, J. D.; Chen, M. C. Physical Review, Vol. 154, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRev.154.1335	journal	February 1967
Real-time dynamics with fermions on a lattice Aarts, Gert; Smit, Jan Nuclear Physics B, Vol. 555, Issue 1-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0550-3213(99)00320-X	journal	August 1999
Real-Time Dynamics of String Breaking Hebenstreit, F.; Berges, J.; Gelfand, D. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 111, Issue 20 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.201601	journal	November 2013
Real-time dynamics of lattice gauge theories with a few-qubit quantum computer Martinez, Esteban A.; Muschik, Christine A.; Schindler, Philipp Nature, Vol. 534, Issue 7608 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature18318	journal	June 2016
Low-cost fermions in classical field simulations Borsányi, Sz.; Hindmarsh, M. Physical Review D, Vol. 79, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.79.065010	journal	March 2009
Confinement of quarks Wilson, Kenneth G. Physical Review D, Vol. 10, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.10.2445	journal	October 1974
Ponderomotive acceleration of hot electrons in tenuous plasmas Geyko, V. I.; Fraiman, G. M.; Dodin, I. Y. Physical Review E, Vol. 80, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.80.036404	journal	September 2009
On the equivalence between the Boltzmann equation and classical field theory at large occupation numbers Mueller, A. H.; Son, D. T. Physics Letters B, Vol. 582, Issue 3-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2003.12.047	journal	March 2004
Zitterbewegung and the Klein paradox for spin‐zero particles Fuda, Michael G.; Furlani, Edward American Journal of Physics, Vol. 50, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1119/1.12819	journal	June 1982
Chiral Magnetic Effect and Anomalous Transport from Real-Time Lattice Simulations Müller, Niklas; Schlichting, Sören; Sharma, Sayantan Physical Review Letters, Vol. 117, Issue 14 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.142301	journal	September 2016
Anomaly-Induced Dynamical Refringence in Strong-Field QED Mueller, N.; Hebenstreit, F.; Berges, J. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 117, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.061601	journal	August 2016
On the Stopping of Fast Particles and on the Creation of Positive Electrons Bethe, H.; Heitler, W. Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Vol. 146, Issue 856 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.1934.0140	journal	August 1934
Discretizing the Maxwell-Klein-Gordon equation by the lattice gauge theory formalism Christiansen, S. H.; Halvorsen, T. G. IMA Journal of Numerical Analysis, Vol. 31, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1093/imanum/drp019	journal	September 2009
Generating positrons with femtosecond-laser pulses Gahn, C.; Tsakiris, G. D.; Pretzler, G. Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 77, Issue 17 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1319526	journal	October 2000
Quantum Vlasov equation and its Markov limit Kluger, Yuval; Mottola, Emil; Eisenberg, Judah M. Physical Review D, Vol. 58, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.58.125015	journal	November 1998
Collision of Two Light Quanta Breit, G.; Wheeler, John A. Physical Review, Vol. 46, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRev.46.1087	journal	December 1934
Ultracold quantum gases and lattice systems: quantum simulation of lattice gauge theories Wiese, U. ‐J. Annalen der Physik, Vol. 525, Issue 10-11 https://doi.org/10.1002/andp.201300104	journal	July 2013
Effective-action approach to wave propagation in scalar QED plasmas Shi, Yuan; Fisch, Nathaniel J.; Qin, Hong Physical Review A, Vol. 94, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.94.012124	journal	July 2016
Universal Quantum Simulators Lloyd, S. Science, Vol. 273, Issue 5278 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.273.5278.1073	journal	August 1996
Brownian Motion of a Quantum Oscillator Schwinger, Julian Journal of Mathematical Physics, Vol. 2, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1703727	journal	May 1961
Dynamically Assisted Schwinger Mechanism Schützhold, Ralf; Gies, Holger; Dunne, Gerald Physical Review Letters, Vol. 101, Issue 13 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.130404	journal	September 2008
A Quantum Kinetic Equation for Particle Production in the Schwinger Mechanism Schmidt, S.; Blaschke, D.; Röpke, G. International Journal of Modern Physics E, Vol. 07, Issue 06 https://doi.org/10.1142/S0218301398000403	journal	December 1998
Pair production in a strong wake field driven by an intense short laser pulse Berezhiani, V. I.; Tskhakaya, D. D.; Shukla, P. K. Physical Review A, Vol. 46, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.46.6608	journal	November 1992
Geometric integration of the Vlasov-Maxwell system with a variational particle-in-cell scheme Squire, J.; Qin, H.; Tang, W. M. Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 19, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4742985	journal	August 2012
Pair production beyond the Schwinger formula in time-dependent electric fields Hebenstreit, F.; Alkofer, R.; Gies, H. Physical Review D, Vol. 78, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.78.061701	journal	September 2008

Cited By (1)

Symmetries and local conservation laws of variational schemes for the surface plasmon polaritons Chen, Qiang; Hao, Xiaojun; Wang, Chuanchuan Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 26, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5086236	journal	April 2019

Figures / Tables (7)

Similar Records

A lattice Maxwell system with discrete space–time symmetry and local energy–momentum conservation

Journal Article · Wed Dec 05 00:00:00 EST 2018 · Physics Letters. A · OSTI ID:1465665

Xiao, Jianyuan; Qin, Hong; Shi, Yuan; +2 more

The accurate particle tracer code

Journal Article · Thu Jul 20 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Computer Physics Communications · OSTI ID:1465665

Wang, Yulei; Liu, Jian; Qin, Hong; +2 more

Photons, phonons, and plasmons with orbital angular momentum in plasmas

Journal Article · Mon Feb 06 00:00:00 EST 2017 · Scientific Reports · OSTI ID:1465665

Chen, Qiang; Qin, Hong; Liu, Jian

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
laser-plasma interactions
lattice field theory
lattice gauge theory
nonlinear phenomena in plasmas
nonperturbative effects in field theory
particle acceleration in plasmas
radiation and particle generation in plasmas