RUI: Spatial and Temporal Dynamics of Matter in Intense Laser Fields

该项目旨在更好地了解如何使用外部激光场来控制，影响甚至创造物质。 该研究小组开发了复杂的算法来执行计算机模拟，以全空间和时间分辨率可视化电子和其他粒子的运动。 计算机模拟还预测，如果激光辐射的强度非常高，这种辐射可以将自己转化为电子和正电子形式的物质。 换句话说，激光的能量可以直接转化为物质。 这个重要的过程基本上还没有得到很好的理解，也没有在实验室中观察到。 计算机模拟可以为欧洲、亚洲和美国计划进行的激光实验提供指导。 这项多国合作的研究工作可能会带来在很短的时间尺度上控制原子、化学甚至生物过程的新方法。该基金的一个重要使命也是让本科生有机会获得研究经验。 这种教育经历为他们提供了重要的技能，包括作为一个团队工作，获得耐力，智力灵活性和经验，以解决严重的研究问题，并在会议和出版物中交流结果。 从技术的角度来看，大规模的计算机模拟解决量子场论狄拉克方程非微扰时空晶格。 它们在德克萨斯州的XSEDE超级计算机集群（Stampede）上执行。 到目前为止，几乎所有关于正负电子对产生过程的理论都忽略了这个过程中的干涉力。 目前的补助金的目标是提供这些部队的影响，由于一个经典的电磁场的时间演变是由麦克斯韦方程的第一个定量评估。

This project aims to provide a better understanding of how one can use an external laser field to control, influence and even create matter. The research team has developed sophisticated algorithms to perform computer simulations to visualize the motion of electrons and other particles with full spatial and temporal resolution. The computer simulations also predict that if the strength of the laser radiation is very high, this radiation can convert itself to matter in the form of electrons and positrons. In other words, the energy of laser light can be converted directly into matter. This important process is fundamentally not well understood and has not been observed in a laboratory yet. The computer simulations may provide guidance for the planned laser experiments in Europe, Asia and the US. This multinational research effort might lead to new ways to control atomic, chemical and even biological processes on very short time scales.An important mission for the grant is also to give undergraduate students the opportunity to gain research experience. This educational experience provides them with important skills including working as a team, gaining the endurance, intellectual flexibility and experience to tackle serious research problems, and communicating results in conferences and publications. From a technical point of view, the large-scale computer simulations solve the quantum field theoretical Dirac equation non-perturbatively on a space-time lattice. They are performed at the XSEDE supercomputer cluster (Stampede) in Texas. Up to this point almost all theories about the electron-positron pair creation process have neglected the interfermionic forces for this process. The goal of the current grant is to provide a first quantitative assessment of the impact of these forces due to a classical electromagnetic field whose temporal evolution is governed by the Maxwell equations.