Recent achievements in laboratory astrophysics experiments with high-power lasers have allowed progress in our understanding of the early stages of star formation.In particular,we have recently demonstrated the possib...Recent achievements in laboratory astrophysics experiments with high-power lasers have allowed progress in our understanding of the early stages of star formation.In particular,we have recently demonstrated the possibility of simulating in the laboratory the process of the accretion of matter on young stars[G.Revet et al.,Sci.Adv.3,e1700982(2017)].The present paper focuses on x-ray spectroscopy methods that allow us to investigate the complex plasma hydrodynamics involved in such experiments.We demonstrate that we can infer the formation of a plasma shell,surrounding the accretion column at the location of impact with the stellar surface,and thus resolve the present discrepancies between mass accretion rates derived from x-ray and optical-radiation astronomical observations originating from the same object.In our experiments,the accretion column ismodeled by having a collimated narrow(1 mm diameter)plasma stream first propagate along the lines of a large-scale external magnetic field and then impact onto an obstacle,mimicking the high-density region of the stellar chromosphere.A combined approach using steady-state and quasi-stationarymodels was successfully applied tomeasure the parameters of the plasma all along its propagation,at the impact site,and in the structure surrounding the impact region.The formation of a hot plasma shell,surrounding the denser and colder core,formed by the incoming stream of matter is observed near the obstacle using x-ray spatially resolved spectroscopy.展开更多
Collisionless shocks are ubiquitous in the Universe and are held responsible for the production of nonthermal particles and high-energy radiation.In the absence of particle collisions in the system,theory shows that t...Collisionless shocks are ubiquitous in the Universe and are held responsible for the production of nonthermal particles and high-energy radiation.In the absence of particle collisions in the system,theory shows that the interaction of an expanding plasma with a pre-existing electromagnetic structure(as in our case)is able to induce energy dissipation and allow shock formation.Shock formation can alternatively take place when two plasmas interact,through microscopic instabilities inducing electromagnetic fields that are able in turn to mediate energy dissipation and shock formation.Using our platform in which we couple a rapidly expanding plasma induced by high-power lasers(JLF/Titan at LLNL and LULI2000)with high-strength magnetic fields,we have investigated the generation of a magnetized collisionless shock and the associated particle energization.We have characterized the shock as being collisionless and supercritical.We report here on measurements of the plasma density and temperature,the electromagnetic field structures,and the particle energization in the experiments,under various conditions of ambient plasma and magnetic field.We have also modeled the formation of the shocks using macroscopic hydrodynamic simulations and the associated particle acceleration using kinetic particle-in-cell simulations.As a companion paper to Yao et al.[Nat.Phys.17,1177–1182(2021)],here we show additional results of the experiments and simulations,providing more information to allow their reproduction and to demonstrate the robustness of our interpretation of the proton energization mechanism as being shock surfing acceleration.展开更多
Laser irradiation of solid targets can drive short and high-charge relativistic electron bunches over micron-scale acceleration gradients.However,for a long time,this technique was not considered a viable means of ele...Laser irradiation of solid targets can drive short and high-charge relativistic electron bunches over micron-scale acceleration gradients.However,for a long time,this technique was not considered a viable means of electron acceleration due to the large intrinsic divergence(∼50°half-angle)of the electrons.Recently,a reduction in this divergence to 10°–20°half-angle has been obtained,using plasma-based magnetic fields or very high contrast laser pulses to extract the electrons into the vacuum.Here we show that we can further improve the electron beam collimation,down to∼1.5°half-angle,of a high-charge(6 nC)beam,and in a highly reproducible manner,while using standard stand-alone 100 TW-class laser pulses.This is obtained by embedding the laser-target interaction in an external,large-scale(cm),homogeneous,extremely stable,and high-strength(20 T)magnetic field that is independent of the laser.With upcoming multi-PW,high repetition-rate lasers,this technique opens the door to achieving even higher charges(>100 nC).展开更多
基金X-ray data measurement,modeling and analysis were made by the JIHT RAS team with financial support from the Russian Science Foundation(Project No.17-72-20272)The authors thank the entire staff of the ELFIE laser facility at LULI for their support during the experimental preparation and execution.This work was supported by ANR Blanc Grant No.12-BS09-025-01 SILAMPA and has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program through the European Research Council(ERC,Grant Agreement No.787539)Some work was done within the LABEX Plas@Par project,which is supported by Grant No.11-IDEX-0004-02 from Agence Nationale de la Recherche.The research leading to these results is supported by Extreme Light Infrastructure Nuclear Physics(ELI-NP)Phase I,a project co-financed by the Romanian Government and European Union through the European Regional Development Fund.This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S.Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract No.DE-AC52-07NA27344.
文摘Recent achievements in laboratory astrophysics experiments with high-power lasers have allowed progress in our understanding of the early stages of star formation.In particular,we have recently demonstrated the possibility of simulating in the laboratory the process of the accretion of matter on young stars[G.Revet et al.,Sci.Adv.3,e1700982(2017)].The present paper focuses on x-ray spectroscopy methods that allow us to investigate the complex plasma hydrodynamics involved in such experiments.We demonstrate that we can infer the formation of a plasma shell,surrounding the accretion column at the location of impact with the stellar surface,and thus resolve the present discrepancies between mass accretion rates derived from x-ray and optical-radiation astronomical observations originating from the same object.In our experiments,the accretion column ismodeled by having a collimated narrow(1 mm diameter)plasma stream first propagate along the lines of a large-scale external magnetic field and then impact onto an obstacle,mimicking the high-density region of the stellar chromosphere.A combined approach using steady-state and quasi-stationarymodels was successfully applied tomeasure the parameters of the plasma all along its propagation,at the impact site,and in the structure surrounding the impact region.The formation of a hot plasma shell,surrounding the denser and colder core,formed by the incoming stream of matter is observed near the obstacle using x-ray spatially resolved spectroscopy.
基金supported by funding from the European Research Council(ERC)under the European Unions Horizon 2020 research and innovation program(Grant Agreement No.787539)The computational resources of this work were supported by the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada(NSERC)and Compute Canada(Job Grant No.pve-323-ac)+4 种基金Part of the experimental system is covered by a patent(No.1000183285,2013,INPI-France)The FLASH software used was developed,in part,by the DOE NNSA ASC-and the DOE Office of Science ASCR-supported Flash Center for Computational Science at the University of ChicagoWe thank J.L.Dubois for providing us EOS and opacities.The research leading to these results is supported by Extreme Light Infrastructure Nuclear Physics(ELI-NP)Phase II,a project co-financed by the Romanian Government and the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund,and by the Project No.ELIRO-2020-23 funded by IFA(Romania)IHT RAS team members are supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation(State Assignment No.075-00460-21-00)The study reported here was funded by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research,Project No.19-32-60008.
文摘Collisionless shocks are ubiquitous in the Universe and are held responsible for the production of nonthermal particles and high-energy radiation.In the absence of particle collisions in the system,theory shows that the interaction of an expanding plasma with a pre-existing electromagnetic structure(as in our case)is able to induce energy dissipation and allow shock formation.Shock formation can alternatively take place when two plasmas interact,through microscopic instabilities inducing electromagnetic fields that are able in turn to mediate energy dissipation and shock formation.Using our platform in which we couple a rapidly expanding plasma induced by high-power lasers(JLF/Titan at LLNL and LULI2000)with high-strength magnetic fields,we have investigated the generation of a magnetized collisionless shock and the associated particle energization.We have characterized the shock as being collisionless and supercritical.We report here on measurements of the plasma density and temperature,the electromagnetic field structures,and the particle energization in the experiments,under various conditions of ambient plasma and magnetic field.We have also modeled the formation of the shocks using macroscopic hydrodynamic simulations and the associated particle acceleration using kinetic particle-in-cell simulations.As a companion paper to Yao et al.[Nat.Phys.17,1177–1182(2021)],here we show additional results of the experiments and simulations,providing more information to allow their reproduction and to demonstrate the robustness of our interpretation of the proton energization mechanism as being shock surfing acceleration.
基金supported by Grant Nos.11-IDEX-0004-02 and ANR-17-CE30-0026-Pinnacle from Agence Nationale de la Recherchethe European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement No.654148 Laserlab-Europe+3 种基金the European Research Council(ERC)under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program(Grant Agreement No.787539)This work was supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation under Contract No.14.Z50.31.0007The work of JIHT RAS team was done under financial support of the Russian Science Foundation(Grant No.17-72-20272)The research leading to these results is supported by Extreme Light Infrastructure Nuclear Physics(ELI-NP)Phase I,a project co-financed by the Romanian Government and European Union through the European Regional Development Fund.
文摘Laser irradiation of solid targets can drive short and high-charge relativistic electron bunches over micron-scale acceleration gradients.However,for a long time,this technique was not considered a viable means of electron acceleration due to the large intrinsic divergence(∼50°half-angle)of the electrons.Recently,a reduction in this divergence to 10°–20°half-angle has been obtained,using plasma-based magnetic fields or very high contrast laser pulses to extract the electrons into the vacuum.Here we show that we can further improve the electron beam collimation,down to∼1.5°half-angle,of a high-charge(6 nC)beam,and in a highly reproducible manner,while using standard stand-alone 100 TW-class laser pulses.This is obtained by embedding the laser-target interaction in an external,large-scale(cm),homogeneous,extremely stable,and high-strength(20 T)magnetic field that is independent of the laser.With upcoming multi-PW,high repetition-rate lasers,this technique opens the door to achieving even higher charges(>100 nC).
