Projects per year
Abstract
The development of ultra-high intensity laser facilities requires a detailed understanding of how accelerating charged particles interact with their own radiation fields. The Abraham-Lorentz-Dirac (ALD) equation - the standard description of radiation reaction - is beset with difficulties, but when handled with care can provide useful information.
A kinetic theory has been developed, based on the exact ALD equation. Although the
unphysical solutions of the ALD equation obstruct the reduction of this theory to the
usual Vlasov-Maxwell system in the appropriate limit, its moments give rise to a
fluid theory which does have the correct limiting behaviour. As a simple illustration of the theory, the radiative damping of Langmuir waves gives rise to a modified dispersion relation. A new unphysical instability is found, originating from the runaway solutions of
the ALD equation, which must be rejected, leaving the physical solutions which display
the correct slow damping.
A kinetic theory has been developed, based on the exact ALD equation. Although the
unphysical solutions of the ALD equation obstruct the reduction of this theory to the
usual Vlasov-Maxwell system in the appropriate limit, its moments give rise to a
fluid theory which does have the correct limiting behaviour. As a simple illustration of the theory, the radiative damping of Langmuir waves gives rise to a modified dispersion relation. A new unphysical instability is found, originating from the runaway solutions of
the ALD equation, which must be rejected, leaving the physical solutions which display
the correct slow damping.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Title of host publication | Central Laser Facility Annual Report 2010-2011 |
Editors | Brian Wyborn |
Pages | 28 |
Number of pages | 1 |
Publication status | Published - 2011 |
Keywords
- radiation reaction
- lasers
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Dive into the research topics of 'Kinetic theory of radiation reaction'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 4 Finished
-
Extreme light infrastructure (ELI)
STFC Science and Technology Facilities Council
1/04/08 → 31/03/11
Project: Research