Imagine recreating the conditions of a neutron star in a laboratory. Recent advances in laser technology are making this a reality, opening doors to explore extreme physics previously confined to astrophysical environments.
Researchers in the United States, supported by the National Science Foundation and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, are using multi-petawatt lasers to generate ultra-strong magnetic fields in dense plasma. Simulations show that magnetic fields exceeding 4 gigagauss can be achieved, approaching the strength found in neutron star magnetospheres.
These intense magnetic fields facilitate the production of high-energy gamma-ray beams and, remarkably, the creation of electron-positron pairs directly from light. This breakthrough enables the study of relativistic magnetic reconnection and radiation-dominated electron dynamics, offering potential applications in new diagnostic tools, compact particle sources, and improved models of cosmic phenomena.
The ability to generate gamma-ray beams also paves the way for creating matter from light through the Breit-Wheeler process. Simulations predict that colliding gamma-ray beams produced by lasers can yield millions of electron-positron pairs, a significant leap from previous experiments.
Furthermore, scientists have discovered that a single laser beam can self-organize a plasma into a photon-photon collider, emitting gamma-rays in both forward and backward directions. This innovative approach simplifies the process of creating matter from light, making it more experimentally feasible and potentially leading to compact, laser-based positron sources for materials characterization and antimatter research.