Laser cosmology

Abstract

Recent years have seen tremendous progress in our understanding of the cosmos, which in turn points to even deeper questions to be further addressed. Concurrently the laser technology has undergone dramatic revolutions, providing exciting opportunity for science applications. History has shown that the symbiosis between direct observations and laboratory investigation is instrumental in the progress of astrophysics. We believe that this remains true in cosmology. Current frontier phenomena related to particle astrophysics and cosmology typically involve one or more of the following conditions: (1) extremely high energy events;(2) very high density, high temperature processes; (3) super strong field environments. Laboratory experiments using high intensity lasers can calibrate astrophysical observations, investigate underlying dynamics of astrophysical phenomena, and probe fundamental physics in extreme limits. In this article we give an overview of the exciting prospect of laser cosmology. In particular, we showcase its unique capability of investigating frontier cosmology issues such as cosmic accelerator and quantum gravity.

Cold black holes in the Harlow–Hayden approach to firewalls

“…More than forty years after the discovery of Hawking radiation [1,2], its precise nature and consequences are still far from being fully understood. Although one should not discount the possibility that technological advances might lead to progress on the experimental [3][4][5][6][7] or observational [8] fronts in the future, at present we are forced to rely on general physical ideas in order to make progress.…”

“…Thus the lifetime must be cut short, as HH require. We stress again that the black holes in our analysis are such that the curvature outside the event horizon is always small [around 144/L 4 , where 5 There is a large literature [for recent examples, see [72] and the references therein] on the question as to whether exactly extremal semi-classical black holes can exist. Note that this is not useful to us here: we need to exclude black holes with temperatures that are "low", not necessarily exactly zero.…”

“…Recall that it is the electric field strength E = Q * /r 2 that is important in the pair-creation of charged particles, not the charge Q per se. In terms of electric field strength, the Schwinger formula [equation (5)…”

Particle trajectories, gamma-ray emission, and anomalous radiative trapping effects in magnetic dipole wave

“…Currently, actively developing multipetawatt laser facilities [1] can become a unique tool for studying the properties of quantum vacuum and quantum electrodynamics (QED) processes in extremely strong fields [2,3], as well as for modeling astrophysical phenomena in laboratory conditions [4][5][6]. Previously, the main attention has been paid to optimal configurations of the multibeam laser setup in which the electric field attains the maximal value.…”

Nonlinear Compton scattering in a strong rotating electric field

“…The experimental availability of such intense field sources creates exciting opportunities in many research fields related to strong field physics [16,17], such as attosecond spectroscopy [18], relativistic nonlinear optics and relativistic high-order harmonic generation [19,20], ultrastrong laser-plasma interaction and particle acceleration [21,22], laboratory astrophysics [23], laser-assisted QED processes [24,25], Schwinger pair production [26] and exotic nuclear physics [27].…”