Speaker
Frederico Fiuza
Description
See the full Abstract at http://ocs.ciemat.es/EPS2018ABS/pdf/I2.J201.pdf
Particle acceleration in astrophysical and laser-driven plasmas
F. Fiuza1
1
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, USA
The acceleration of non-thermal particles is critical for our understanding of explosive
astrophysical phenomena, from solar flares to gamma ray bursts. Collisionless shocks and
magnetic reconnection are often invoked as the dominant acceleration mechanisms,
depending on whether the system energy is stored in flows or magnetic fields, respectively;
however the microphysics underlying these processes and their ability to efficiently
accelerate particles is not yet fully understood. The combination of first principles
simulations and high-energy-density laser-driven plasma experiments can play an important
role in the exploration of the microphysics of particle acceleration in collisionless plasmas.
By performing for the first time 3D particle-in-cell simulations of the interaction of both
magnetized and unmagnetized laser-driven plasmas it was possible to identify the optimal
parameters for observation of particle acceleration in the laboratory with current laser
systems. I will show that efficient non-thermal acceleration of both electrons and ions can
be reached in near-future laser-driven studies of collisionless shocks and magnetic
reconnection [1-2]. The dominant mechanisms associated with energy dissipation and
particle acceleration are identified as a function of the plasma conditions. Finally, I will
discuss the requirements on the diagnostics to probe the microphysics of particle
acceleration. These results open the way for the first experimental characterization of these
important processes in the laboratory [3].
[1] S. Totorica, T. Abel, F. Fiuza, Physical Review Letters 116, 095003 (2016);
[2] S. Totorica, T. Abel, F. Fiuza, Physics of Plasmas 24, 041408 (2017);
[3] C. M. Huntington, F. Fiuza et al, Nature Physics 11, 173(2015);
