Projets

ANR UnRIP (Uncovering Relativistic Instabilities in Plasmas)

Post-Image

Figure : Numerical simulation [1] of the unstable propagation of a $10\,\mathrm{GeV}$ electron beam of density $1.5\times10^{18}\, \mathrm{cm}^{-3}$ in a plasma of density $5\times 10^{19}\, \mathrm{cm}^{-3}$. The transverse beam profile is either finite (top) or infinite (bottom).

ANR UnRIP (Uncovering Relativistic Instabilities in Plasmas)

The UnRIP project is a collaboration between the Laboratoire d’Optique Appliquée (LOA), the Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris (IAP) and the LMCE. It aims at investigating the instabilities governing the interaction between a plasma and a beam of very high-energy particles both theoretically and experimentally. These instabilities, which are analogous to those encountered in astrophysical objects, lead to the rapid growth of electromagnetic fluctuations. These fluctuations are, potentially strong enough to heat the plasma and the beam, and result in significant gamma radiation from the latter. Two types of experiment are proposed: on the one hand, the interaction of an ultra-intense laser (at LOA) with a solid target, and on the other hand, the interaction of an ultra-relativistic electron beam, produced by a conventional accelerator (at SLAC), with a solid or gaseous target. Combined with advanced numerical simulations, these finely-resolved experiments will enable us to characterize the dynamics and hierarchy of the various instabilities present over a wide range of parameters.

Partners : LOA, IAP, LMCE

Publications

  1. P. San Miguel Claveria, X. Davoine, J.R. Peterson, M. Gilljohann, I. Andriyash, R. Ariniello, C. Clarke, H. Ekerfelt, C. Emma, J. Faure, S. Gessner, M.J. Hogan, C. Joshi, C.H. Keitel, A. Knetsch, O. Kononenko, M. Litos, Y. Mankovska, K. Marsh, A. Matheron, Z. Nie, B. O’Shea, D. Storey, N. Vafaei-Najafabadi, Y. Wu, X. Xu, J. Yan, C. Zhang, M. Tamburini, F. Fiuza, L. Gremillet, “Spatiotemporal dynamics of ultrarelativistic beam-plasma instabilities,” Phys. Rev. Res. 4, 023085 (2022) DOI