From linear to nonlinear Breit-Wheeler pair production in laser-solid interactions.
Phys Rev E
; 109(3-2): 035204, 2024 Mar.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38632729
ABSTRACT
During the ultraintense laser interaction with solids (overdense plasmas), the competition between two possible quantum electrodynamics (QED) mechanisms responsible for e^{±} pair production, i.e., linear and nonlinear Breit-Wheeler (BW) processes, remains to be studied. Here, we have implemented the linear BW process via a Monte Carlo algorithm into the QED particle-in-cell (PIC) code yunic, enabling us to self-consistently investigate both pair production mechanisms in the plasma environment. By a series of two-dimensional QED-PIC simulations, the transition from the linear to the nonlinear BW process is observed with the increase of laser intensities in the typical configuration of a linearly polarized laser interaction with solid targets. A critical normalized laser amplitude about a_{0}â¼400-500 is found under a large range of preplasma scale lengths, below which the linear BW process dominates over the nonlinear BW process. This work provides a practicable technique to model linear QED processes via integrated QED-PIC simulations. Moreover, it calls for more attention to be paid to linear BW pair production in near future 10-PW-class laser-solid interactions.
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Phys Rev E
Año:
2024
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
China
Pais de publicación:
Estados Unidos