Speaker
Stuart Mangles
Description
See the full Abstract at http://ocs.ciemat.es/EPS2018ABS/pdf/I3.208.pdf
Laser wakefield accelerators as tools for studying extreme conditions
S.P.D. Mangles1
John Adams Institute for Accelerator Science, The Blackett Laboratory,
Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK
Wakefield accelerators driven by intense laser pulses can now produce GeV electron bunches
and broadband multi-keV X-rays with femtosecond durations. By using the multiple-beam
capabilities available at typical high-intensity laser facilities, these beams are potentially useful
tools for exploring extreme conditions that are found in astrophysical environments and can be
created in highly transient experiments in the laboratory. Conditions that can be studied the
high temperatures and pressures in planetary and stellar interiors, the high X-ray flux found in
the vicinity of accretion disks around black holes, and even the intense electromagnetic fields
on the surface of quasars. This talk will describe some recent and planned experiments that use
laser wakefield accelerators to probe a diverse range of physics including: radiation reaction
physics at high intensity, electron-positron pair production in high-flux X-ray fields, time
resolved X-ray imaging of high-density shocks and time resolved X-ray absorption
spectroscopy of warm dense matter.
