CRITICAL MASS: Collective radiation-beam-plasma interactions at high intensities

该提案描述了一项研究方案，涉及高场强下单粒子和集体辐射-光束-等离子体相互作用、飞秒至阿秒持续时间的高亮度粒子束的产生、紧凑而廉价的相干和非相干辐射的新来源、加速粒子的新方法，这些方法可以使粒子广泛使用，并通过扩大其参数范围，刺激新的应用领域。该提案的一个重要辅助措施是实施一项方案，利用这些来源证明其有用性，并提供一种让工业界和其他最终用户参与的方式。该项目建立在以前的实验和理论研究的先进激光等离子体高能加速器对X射线（ALPHA-X）的项目，该项目已经证明了控制加速的激光等离子体韦克菲尔德加速器（LWFA），初步应用的光束从LWFA和演示伽马射线生产由于共振感应加速器运动在LWFA。该方案将具有广泛的相关性，通过发展对辐射物质相互作用的高度非线性和集体物理学的理解，从天体物理学，聚变和核物理学到辐射与生物物质的相互作用等领域。它还将涉及物理学中的几个基本问题，如等离子体介质中的辐射反应和非线性耦合系统中相干性的发展。

This proposal describes a programme of research on single-particle and collective radiation-beam-plasma interactions at high field intensities, production of high-brightness particle beams with femtosecond to attosecond duration, new sources of coherent and incoherent radiation that are both compact and inexpensive, new methods of accelerating particles which could make them widely available and, by extending their parameter range, stimulate new application areas. An important adjunct to the proposal will be a programme to apply the sources to demonstrate their usefulness and also provide a way to involve industry and other end-users. The project builds on previous experiments and theoretical investigations of the Advanced Laser Plasma High-energy Accelerators towards X-rays (ALPHA-X) project, which has demonstrated controlled acceleration in a laser-plasma wakefield accelerator (LWFA), initial applications of beams from the LWFA and demonstrations of gamma ray production due to resonant betatron motion in the LWFA. The programme will have broad relevance, through developing an understanding of the highly nonlinear and collective physics of radiation-matter interactions, to fields ranging from astrophysics, fusion and nuclear physics, to the interaction of radiation with biological matter. It will also touch on several basic problems in physics, such as radiation reaction in plasma media and the development of coherence in nonlinear coupled systems.