Radiation reaction in electron–beam interactions with high-intensity lasers

Abstract

Charged particles accelerated by electromagnetic fields emit radiation, which must, by the conservation of momentum, exert a recoil on the emitting particle. The force of this recoil, known as radiation reaction, strongly affects the dynamics of ultrarelativistic electrons in intense electromagnetic fields. Such environments are found astrophysically, e.g. in neutron star magnetospheres, and will be created in laser-matter experiments in the next generation of high-intensity laser facilities. In many of these scenarios, the energy of an individual photon of the radiation can be comparable to the energy of the emitting particle, which necessitates modelling not only of radiation reaction, but quantum radiation reaction. The worldwide development of multi-petawatt laser systems in large-scale facilities, and the expectation that they will create focussed electromagnetic fields with unprecedented intensities > 10 23 Wcm −2 , has motivated renewed interest in these effects. In this paper I review theoretical and experimental progress towards understanding radiation reaction, and quantum effects on the same, in high-intensity laser fields that are probed with ultrarelativistic electron beams. In particular, we will discuss how analytical and numerical methods give insight into new kinds of radiation-reaction-induced dynamics, as well as how the same physics can be explored in experiments at currently existing laser facilities.

Classical and quantum double copy of back-reaction

“…(At higher orders one can identify e.g. radiation-reaction on the electron motion [44][45][46][47][48]. )…”

Radiative polarization dynamics of relativistic electrons in an intense electromagnetic field

“…The state-of-the-art petawatt laser facilities [1][2][3] enable the peak intensity of a short laser pulse to reach 10 23 W/cm 2 , which makes it possible to experimentally explore the exotic quantum electrodynamics phenomena [4][5][6][7][8]. On the other hand, today's particle accelerators, like some electron synchrotrons [9,10] and laserdriven plasma accelerators [11,12], can easily accelerate electrons up to several GeV.…”

Towards isolated attosecond electron bunches using ultrashort-pulse laser-solid interactions

“…It is worth pointing out that these electron bunches hardly see any radiation reaction effects even when . Classical radiation reaction effects becomes strong when the classical radiation reaction parameter and dominate when 30 , where is the relevant parameter for supercritical fields. To consider radiation reaction effects when , one needs .…”