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  • Cherenkov effect from superluminal quasiparticles

    When light-emitting current profiles exceed the speed of light, they produce
    an explosion of cone-shaped light similar to the shape of a sonic boom
    created by supersonic jets.

  • 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.

  • 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.



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

Aggregation Exam by Jorge Vieira

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Jorge Vieira, an IPFN researcher and Associate Professor in the Physics Department at Instituto Superior Técnico, has reached an important milestone in his academic journey by successfully completing his Aggregation in Physics. The two-day examination took place on January 13th and 14th, 2025, at IST. The exam featured two main components: a Curricular Unit Report on the Introduction to Plasma Physics course and a seminar titled… Read more

GoLP researchers secure 30 million core hours on MareNostrum 5

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The project Realistic Simulations of Relativistic Plasmas in Astrophysical and Laboratory Environments, led by GoLP researchers Thales Silva and Pablo Bilbao, has been awarded 30 million CPU core hours on the MareNostrum 5 supercomputer through the Rede Nacional de Computação Avançada. This allocation will support cutting-edge research into the behavior of relativistic plasmas under extreme conditions, with applications to both astrophysical phenomena and laboratory experiments. Relativistic… Read more


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