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Title: Experimental Evidence of Radiation Reaction in the Collision of a High-Intensity Laser Pulse with a Laser-Wakefield Accelerated Electron Beam

Journal Article · · Physical Review. X
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [3];  [1];  [4];  [5];  [3];  [6];  [7];  [2];  [8];  [3];  [5];  [4];  [1];  [4];  [9];  [9];  [10] more »;  [11];  [9];  [12];  [1];  [1] « less
  1. Imperial College, London (United Kingdom)
  2. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
  3. Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg (Sweden)
  4. University of York (United Kingdom)
  5. University of Strathclyde, Glasgow (United Kingdom)
  6. Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg (Sweden); Plymouth University (United Kingdom)
  7. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States) ; Friedrich-Schiller-Universität, Jena (Germany)
  8. Friedrich-Schiller-Universität, Jena (Germany)
  9. The Queen’s University of Belfast (United Kingdom)
  10. Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot (United Kingdom)
  11. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States); Lancaster Univ. (United Kingdom)
  12. Friedrich-Schiller-Universität, Jena (Germany); The Queen’s University of Belfast (United Kingdom); Helmholtz Institut, Jena (Germany)

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, today’s 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 ( ϵ > 500 MeV ) with an intense laser pulse (a0 > 10). We measure an energy loss in the postcollision electron spectrum that is correlated with the detected signal of hard photons (γ rays), consistent with a quantum description of radiation reaction. The generated γ rays have the highest energies yet reported from an all-optical inverse Compton scattering scheme, with critical energy ϵcrit > 30 MeV.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
NA0002372
OSTI ID:
1499095
Journal Information:
Physical Review. X, Vol. 8, Issue 1; ISSN 2160-3308
Publisher:
American Physical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 224 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Benchmarking semiclassical approaches to strong-field QED: Nonlinear Compton scattering in intense laser pulses journal August 2018
A spectrometer for ultrashort gamma-ray pulses with photon energies greater than 10 MeV journal November 2018
Are we ready to transfer optical light to gamma-rays? journal May 2019
Relativistic theory of electron-nucleus-radiation coupled dynamics in molecules: Wavepacket approach journal August 2019
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Synchrotron emission from nanowire array targets irradiated by ultraintense laser pulses journal June 2018
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Global constant field approximation for radiation reaction in collision of high-intensity laser pulse with electron beam journal May 2019
Laser-solid interaction and its potential for probing radiative corrections in strong-field quantum electrodynamics journal June 2019
A Frenet–Serret interpretation of particle dynamics in high-intensity laser fields journal May 2019
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Note on the conjectured breakdown of QED perturbation theory in strong fields journal April 2019
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Polarized Ultrashort Brilliant Multi-GeV γ Rays via Single-Shot Laser-Electron Interaction journal January 2020
Experimental Signatures of the Quantum Nature of Radiation Reaction in the Field of an Ultraintense Laser text January 2018
HELL: High-Energy Electrons by Laser Light, a User-Oriented Experimental Platform at ELI Beamlines journal September 2018
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Gamma photons and electron-positron pairs from ultra-intense laser-matter interaction: A comparative study of proposed configurations journal November 2019
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