extreme plasma physics

Electromagnetic-like dark matter self-interaction

The image depicts the interpenetration of two dark e- e+ plasma clouds.
The interaction of dark-plasma clouds leads to the generation of
dark-Weibel magnetic fields, which deflect the particle trajectories.
This process causes the flow velocity of dark matter to slow down.
Magnetic reconnection of QED strength
fields with hard photon radiation emission

Compression of the fields of a magnetic island leads to
enhanced radiative cooling, in turn, further compression,
and thus a runaway process leading to QED effects such
as pair production. This image shows field lines around a
magnetic island colored by strength. Regions where the field
is compressed to more than 125% of the initial strength are
highlighted in green. The emitted hard photons responsible for
radiative cooling and pair production are shown clustered
around the compressed field.
Speiser and Dahu orbits:
 the trappings that heat you up!

Time evolution of two current sheets profiles (colored surfaces)
that move close to each other, increasing their intensities
(from violet to yellow) and merges at the late stage. The lines
represent the trajectories of sample ions. The white ones
(not trapped) do not increase their energy. The colored trajectory,
instead, is trapped bouncing between the confining approaching
current profiles, increasing its kinetic energy from yellow to green,
evolving alternatively from Speiser and Dahu orbits.
Flying cavity: micro-bunching of protons
for electron acceleration

Particle accelerators have been crucial in providing novel insights
in different branches of physics. It is foreseen that the next generation
of particle accelerators will be plasma-driven. Using a laser pulse
in a neutral gas, an electron plasma can be generated which cuts
a long proton bunch in micro-bunches. This allows to generate wakes
for accelerating electrons to higher energies over shorter distances.
QED strength magnetic reconnection
triggered by radiative compression

When magnetic fields approach the Schwinger magnetic field,
radiative cooling triggers compression of the field to even stronger
levels, allowing for QED effects such as pair production to play
an important role. In this video, magnetic field lines, colored by
field strength, are shown to reconnect. Regions where the field
is compressed to more than 125% of the initial strength are highlighted
in green, with the projected field strength displayed behind in blue.
Fountain currents and Biermann fields

The movie illustrates the interaction between an intense
laser pulse (light orange) and an overdense target (blue surface),
generating a strong toroidal magnetic field (dark orange), via the
Biermann battery mechanism. Indeed, as a consequence of the
interaction, the expansion of the plasma (density gradient) occurs
in a direction perpendicular to the electron heating (temperature gradient),
thus giving rise to a non-zero ∇ n x ∇ T and, hence, a magnetic field.
The blue arrows represent the electron current, showing the
so-called fountain effect.
Radiation from charged particles in a
helical trajectory

Charged particles undergoing a helical trajectory have been
shown to emit radiation with very interesting spectral properties.
The Radiation Diagnostic for OSIRIS (RaDiO) captures the radiated
fields in a grid separate from the simulation grid. This animation
follows a relativistic particle (in blue) undergoing a helical trajectory,
the radiation is represented by pink rings that spread out as they
propagate. We then accelerate towards the detector to see the
same radiation as captured by RaDiO.

Welcome to the website of the extreme plasma physics team, the theory and simulation team of the Group for Lasers and Plasmas of the Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear at Instituto Superior Técnico.

Our team is funded by the European Research Council through the Advanced Grant "Accelerates" (ERC-AdG2010 no. 267841) and the Advanced Grant “InPairs” (ERC-AdG2015).

Latest News

EPP research in Virtual Reality at Dia do Técnico 2019

Hundreds of people visited Instituto Superior Técnico last Thursday (May 23rd) to celebrate its 108th anniversary. For the occasion, we let them dive into the plasma realm with virtual reality, sounds, images, and videos realized from our research (most of them available here). Read more

Fabio C awarded best talk JPP prize at 2019 Les Houches Plasma Physics School

Fabio C was awarded the best talk Journal of Plasma Physics prize at 2019 Les Houches Plasma Physics School, with his presentation on “Particle-in-cell simulations of pair discharges at pulsar polar caps”. Evan Heintz (University of Winsconsin), Alice Giroul (Queen Mary University of London) and Sonakshi Sachdev (Chennai Mathematical Institute) were… Read more

Latest Publications

Prospect of Studying Nonperturbative QED with Beam-Beam Collisions, Physical Review Letters 122 (2019) p. 190404
V Yakimenko, S Meuren, F Del Gaudio, C Baumann, A Fedotov, F Fiuza, T Grismayer, MJ Hogan, A Pukhov, LO Silva, G White
Are we ready to transfer optical light to gamma-rays?, Physics of Plasmas 26 (2019) p. 053103
Marija Vranic, Thomas Grismayer, Sebastian Meuren, Ricardo A Fonseca, Luis O Silva
Petascale PIC simulations of kinetic effects in IFE plasmas, Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion 61 (2019) p. 044007
Han Wen, F Tsung, Warren B Mori, Ricardo A Fonseca, Luis O Silva
Experimental observation of plasma wakefield growth driven by the seeded self-modulation of a proton bunch, Physical Review Letters 122 (2019) p. 054801
M Turner et al. (AWAKE collaboration)

Electromagnetic-like dark matter self-interaction

Magnetic reconnection of QED strength fields with hard photon radiation emission

Speiser and Dahu orbits: the trappings that heat you up!

Flying cavity: micro-bunching of protons for electron acceleration

QED strength magnetic reconnection triggered by radiative compression

Fountain currents and Biermann fields

Radiation from charged particles in a helical trajectory

Latest News

EPP research in Virtual Reality at Dia do Técnico 2019

Fabio C awarded best talk JPP prize at 2019 Les Houches Plasma Physics School

Latest Publications

Magnetic reconnection of QED strength
fields with hard photon radiation emission

Speiser and Dahu orbits:
 the trappings that heat you up!

Flying cavity: micro-bunching of protons
for electron acceleration

QED strength magnetic reconnection
triggered by radiative compression

Radiation from charged particles in a
helical trajectory