Speaker:

Dr. Nina Elkina, Helmholtz-Institut Jena

Abstract:

The development of laser technologies promises very rapid growth of laser intensities

in close future already. Two exawatt class facilities (ELI and XCELS)

are currently in the planning stage. Realization of these projects will make

available a laser of intensity 10

W/cm

or even higher. In first part of my talk,

I will present a short review of recent progress in studying QED effects which

will be accessible for observation at ELI and XCELS facilities. In particular, I

will discuss effects of radiation reaction, development of electromagnetic cascades

and vacuum birefringence which can be measured by multi-MeV photons

generated in the collision of electrons with a laser pulse.

The second part of my talk will be devoted to discussion of numerical methods

for accurate and effective simulation of plasma in intense field QED regime.

Numerical investigations are generally based on the Monte Carlo (MC) method

for sampling of elementary quantum events of photon emission and electronpositron

pair production, which is coupled with solving the kinetic equations

via particle-in-cell method. However it is not always possible to apply PIC+MC

approach especially on nonlinear stage of cascades due to exponential accumulation

of newly created particles. Finally, I will review the problems that still

need to be overcome in numerical simulations in order to make possible to carry

out full scale simulation of several scenarios of planned experiments at future

high-intensity laser facilities.

Date:

Tuesday, 15 November 2016, 10:30

Venue:

GRS Lecture Room, building 16.15, room 2009

Announcement as pdf file: