An international team of scientists involving epp team researchers Nitin Shukla, Jorge Vieira and Luís Silva recently announced the discovery of a new state of matter, which is electrically neutral and containing equal parts of matter and anti-matter. This new substance had never been observed before, and has been subject of many theories that predict that it could be observed near the boundary of black holes and produced through violent astrophysical explosions. Experiments combined with massive particle-in-cell simulations have now shown that this exotic substance could be produced when an intense laser propagates in a plasma producing ultra-relativistic electrons that can then be transformed in a fireball electron-positron beam with equal parts of matter and anti-matter. These results were published in Nature Communications. The paper can be found here.

 
 Elisabetta B, Joana M, Jorge V, Marija V, Thomas G, and Luis OS attended the SPIE Conference 2015 in Prague from April 13 to April 16, delivering several invited talks and oral and poster contributions. This year, SPIE covered many of the hot topics in ultra intense laser matter interactions, laser-plasma acceleration, radiation generation and QED effects, with many interesting results being presented.
 

Luis OS, Elisabetta, Joana, and Marija attended the École de Physique des Houches on Turbulence, Magnetic Fields and Self-Organisation in Laboratory and Astrophysical Plasmas. The school is running from March 23, 2015 to April 3, 2015 in the beautiful Chamonix Valley, an ideal setting for introspection, lively discussions with the 100+ participants, and winter sports! The École de Physique des Houches has a long tradition of hosting schools on some of the most exciting physics topics. More information on the School here.

On March 20, Marija successfully defended her PhD thesis in Physics at IST entitled “Extreme laser-matter interactions: multi-scale PIC modelling from the classical to the QED perspective” with the highest mark. The thesis committee was composed of Victor Malka, Peter Norreys, Jorge Romão, Ricardo Fonseca, Marta Fajardo and Luis OS. Many congratulations to Marija!

 
In the February 16 2015 edition of the i newspaper, Luis OS explains the fourth state of matter in less than 650 characters and in Portuguese (with the standard metaphors). The “full” text is also here with many other science questions raised by the readers of i.

The PRACE project “Shock Acceleration in the Laboratory with Ultraintense Lasers: from astrophysics to ion acceleration for medical applications” has been featured in the website of the Gauss Centre for Supercomputing, with a description of the key results of the project. This PRACE project has contributed to the goals of the ERC Advanced Grant Accelerates. The article is available here.

Starting January 1st, Luis OS has joined the editorial board of the Journal of Plasma Physics (Cambridge University Press) as Associate Editor. The Journal of Plasma Physics has published some of the fundamental developments of plasma physics. JPP aspires to be the intellectual home of those who think of plasma physics as a fundamental discipline. The journal will particularly focus on publishing research on laboratory plasmas, space physics and plasma astrophysics that takes advantage of the rapid ongoing progress in instrumentation and computing to advance fundamental understanding of multiscale plasma physics. Read the Editorial: The Way Forward for JPP by Bill Dorland and Alex Schekochihin.

Happy Holidays to all our team members and friends! We look forward to another year of great science, friendship, and fun!

This years’ GoLP Day (December 15) was held near the Castelo de São Jorge, in Museu de Artes Decorativas. The programme included the Marshmallow Challenge, case studies on improving several aspects of GoLP’s life, visits to the Museum and the Workshops, and to the Castelo São Jorge, prizes (including official GoLP merchandise!), and lots of interactions and fun. 

On December 5, Joana successfully defended her PhD thesis in Physics entitled “Radiation processes in laser driven laboratory scenarios” at IST with the highest mark. The thesis committee was composed of Bob Bingham, Patric Muggli, Ricardo Fonseca, João M. Dias, Jorge Vieira and Luis OS. Many congratulations to Joana!