PRL Successful simulation of photon collisions to create matter
A team of researchers led by researchers at Osaka University and the University of California, San Diego, have modeled the process of producing matter solely through collisions of light particles. Their method circumvents the intensity limitations of modern lasers and can be easily implemented using existing technology.The work was published Aug. 9 in Physical Review Letters.
"Positron Generation and Acceleration in a Self-Organized Photon Collider Enabled by an Ultraintense Laser Pulse."
This result may help to experimentally test long-standing theories such as the Standard Model of particle physics, and may require its revision.
One of the most astounding predictions of quantum physics was that matter could be produced entirely from light (i.e., photons), and in fact the celestial body known as a pulsar has achieved this feat. The direct generation of matter in this way has not yet been realized in the laboratory, but it will help to further test basic quantum physics theories and the fundamental makeup of the universe.
Theoretically, photon-photon collisions are the fundamental way in which matter is created in the universe, stemming from Einstein's famous equation E=mc2. In fact, the researchers have already created matter from light indirectly: by accelerating metal ions such as gold into collisions with each other at high speeds. At such high speeds, each ion is surrounded by photons, which, when rubbing against each other, produce matter and antimatter.
However, generating matter using only lasers is a challenge in modern laboratories because extremely high-powered lasers are required. Simulating how to achieve this feat in the lab could lead to an experimental breakthrough, so that's exactly what the researchers aimed to do.
In this experiment, the team discovered a simple mechanism in which a near-critical plasma can self-organize to produce positrons when irradiated with an experimental-strength laser that accelerates them to ultra-relativistic energies.
"Our simulations demonstrate that dense plasma can self-organize to form a photon-photon collider when interacting with the strong electromagnetic field of a laser," explains Dr. Sugimoto, the study's first author, "This collider contains a dense population of gamma rays with a density of ten times the density of electrons in a plasma and a million times the energy of photons in a laser."
Photon-photon collisions in the collider create electron-positron pairs, and the plasma electric field produced by the laser accelerates the positrons - which creates a positron beam.
"This is the first simulation of accelerating positrons from a linear Breit-Wheeler process under relativistic conditions," said co-author Prof. Arefiev of UC San Diego, "We think our proposal is experimentally feasible, and we look forward to real-world put into practice."
An image of a self-organizing photon collider driven by an intense laser pulse propagating through a plasma.
Self-organizing photon collider driven by an intense laser pulse (a) plasma density; (b) magnetic flux channel; (c) angular distribution of emitted photons.
Dr. Vyacheslav Lukin, the NSF program director who supported the work, said, "This study demonstrates a potential way to explore the mysteries of the universe in a laboratory setting. The future possibilities of today's and tomorrow's high-power laser facilities become even more intriguing."
The application of this work to the fictional matter-energy conversion technology in Star Trek remains only fictional. However, this work has the potential to help experimentally confirm the theory of the composition of the universe, and may even contribute to the discovery of previously unknown physics.
Reference link:
[1]https://phys.org/news/2023-08-simulating-creation-photonphoton-collisions.html
[2]https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.065102
[3]https://www.azoquantum.com/News.aspx?newsID=9729
