Search

We report on the generation and delivery of 10.2 PW peak power laser pulses, using the High Power Laser System at the Extreme Laser Infrastructure – Nuclear Physics facility. In this work we demonstrate for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, the compression and propagation of full energy, full aperture, laser pulses that reach a power level of more than 10 PW.

We investigate in detail the stimulated photon emission in pulse-shaped Laguerre-Gauss beams of arbitrary mode decomposition within the framework of Euler-Heisenberg effective theory. We elaborate on the analytic structure of the photon emission amplitude and identify its dominant and subdominant parts by analyzing each signature’s phase scaling. We identify three distinct nonlinear signatures: the orbital angular momentum flip (ℓ: 1→−1), higher harmonic generation (ℓ: 1→2), and harmonic reduction (ℓ: 1→0). We estimate the signal photon yield for each signature under various pulse collision scenarios we explain in detail. We also outline a prospective experimental setup that may probe these signatures.

Cosmic rays are ubiquitous and readily available, making them a good teaching tool for particle and astrophysics by young students. Tan-Q is an inclusive outreach and educational project, providing students in Japanese junior-high or high schools with research opportunities to join cosmic-ray and particle physics. In the Tan-Q framework, the students in each school conduct their research with help from mentors who are mainly undergraduate students. Researchers are also extensively involved through regular Zoom meetings and continuous communication on Slack. Some cases are inter-school, and some are international. This paper presents one of the Tan-Q activities of joint research between high schools in Japan and Argentina to observe cosmic-ray muons using CosmicWatches. Our primary goal is to investigate the muon flux differences due to the differences in circumstances like altitudes and geomagnetic field strengths. Those involved learn not only particle physics but also statistical data analysis methods., 7 pages, 3 figures, Proceedings of ICRC2021

Founded by the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructure (ESFRI), three state-of-art laser-based institutes in Romania, Hungary, and the Czech Republic were commissioned in the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI). Construction for the three sites started in 2012 and, as of 2020, all sites are operational. ELI-NP (Extreme Light Infrastructure: Nuclear Physics) is located 10km south of Bucharest in Romania. Its flagship installation is two beams of 10 PW, each providing 230 J output energy at a 23 fs laser pulse width. The capability to provide a 10 PW output was recently demonstrated in a live performance. We were able to show that the 10 PW laser shots can be delivered for 10 minutes at a rate of one shot every minute. A total of 230 Zoom participants worldwide, including Prof G Mourou and Prof D Strickland, the Physics Nobel Laureates in 2018, witnessed this breakthrough demonstration. An early experiment at the 100 TW laser station at ELI-NP has already been completed. We successfully demonstrated an electron acceleration of up to 300 MeV, either resulting in monoenergetic or broadband spectra, depending on the well controllable experimental conditions we set. Operations at the 1 PW and 10 PW experimental stations will start soon. External user access will be tested with the early and commissioning experiments and will be formulated coherently within the framework of the IMPULSE project guided by ELI-DC. Reference Current status and highlights of the ELI-NP program research program, KA Tanaka, K Spohr, D Balabanski, et al., Matter Rad. Extremes, 5, 024402 (2020): doi.10.1063/1.5093535

We have shown, for the first time in the world, the production of 10 PW peak power laser pulses and their propagation to an experimental area at the Extreme Light Infrastructure - Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP). We are also steadily running the laser system for experimental campaigns, increasing the output power levels delivered for experiments and fine-tuning the parameters of the laser pulses, the operational procedures, and the operational teams. During our presentation, we will show the laser developments at ELI-NP emphasizing the 10 PW peak power demonstrations and the latest results for the HPLS beam delivery.

Muonium is one of the best probes for the test of the bound-state QED, owing to the absence of the effect from the internal structure of nucleons. The recent establishment of intense pulsed muon beams at Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC) paves the way to improved measurement of the muonium ground-state hyperfine structure (MuHFS). The measurement of MuHFS also determines the muon magnetic moment precisely, which is an important input parameter for the measurements of muon g-2, which is known for the 3-sigma discrepancy between the experiment and the theory. Muonium Spectroscopy Experiment Using Microwave (MuSEUM) collaboration aims to improve the precursor MuHFS experiment by a factor of ten. We present the status of the project and the prospect.

Muonic hydrogen is a bound state of a proton and a negative muon. Its Bohr radius is 200 times smaller than that of an electronic hydrogen atom. Therefore, a spectroscopy of the muonic hydrogen is highly sensitive to the finite size effect of proton. Recent years, the proton charge radius was determined by the laser spectroscopy of the Lamb shifts in muonic hydrogen atom. The experiment determined the proton charge radius significantly smaller than the results of past measurements. This anomaly is called “proton radius puzzle” and it has been an important unsolved problem in subatomic physics. Towards solving the puzzle, a new measurement of the ground-state hyperfine splitting in muonic hydrogen was proposed. The hyperfine splitting of muonic hydrogen derives the proton Zemach radius, which is defined as a convolution of the charge distribution with the magnetic moment distribution. This experiment aims to determine the proton Zemach radius with 1% precision by a measurement of the decay electron angular asymmetry. In order to test the feasibility of the laser spectroscopy, a preliminary experiment to measure the hyperfine quenching rate was proposed.

Recent progress in the physics of fast ignition of fusion targets is reviewed here. Fundamental studies on hot electron energy transport show that the scheme looks promising if the heating pulse can be guided close enough to a compressed core. The idea of using cone-guided compression was first demonstrated experimentally under a Japan-UK collaboration. The use of the gold cone was extremely successful and showed a 10 3 neutron increase out of CD target implosion with a 300 J/0.5 ps enforced heating laser pulse. The heated temperature was close to 1 keV. In order to increase the temperature to 10 keV, a 10 kJ PW- laser system is necessary. Osaka University has started constructing such a laser system.