Berlin 2014 – scientific programme

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help

P: Fachverband Plasmaphysik

P 24: Laser Plasmas I

P 24.7: Talk

Thursday, March 20, 2014, 15:30–15:45, SPA HS202

Models for radiation reaction in laser plasma simulation — •Nina Elkina — Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich

In recent years much interest has been attracted to the problem of radiation reaction in a realm of high intensity laser fields. Rigorous approach to radiation reaction requires quantum treatment of the stochastic events of hard photon emission. In numerical simulation of plasma the quantum emission can bee modelled by using Monte-Carlo sampling of proton emission. This method treats correctly the recoil on electrons due to emission of hard photons ℏω ≥ 0.511 MeV. At the same time, the relatively soft part of the photon spectrum below 0.511 MeV has to be ignored due to a limited numerical resolution. Our goal is to develop appropriate models which account for the radiation reaction due to soft and moderate energy photons. The first situation corresponds to the purely classical picture of the radiation reaction based on Lorentz-Abraham-Dirac or the Landau-Lifshitz equations. At somewhat higher photon energies the Fokker-Planck equation provides an attractive way to introduce the economical amount of quantum description for the radiation recoil as a diffusion in momentum space. We present an important application of the developed numerical techniques to the problem of relativistic scattering of electrons by a focused laser field and test them against full quantum model. The results of numerical simulation using the classical and the Fokker-Planck models for the radiation reaction will be presented and analysed.