Nonthermal Acceleration of Charged Particles due to an Incoherent Wakeeld Induced by an Intensive Laser Pulse

Yasuhiro Kuramitsu
Abstract We discuss charged particle acceleration in an incoherent wakeeld induced by an intensive laser pulse. A wakeeld is considered to be excited in the upstream of relativistic perpendicular shocks by large amplitude precursor electromagnetic waves. In order to model such shock environments in a laboratory plasma, we replace the large amplitude waves with an intensive laser pulse. Performing particle-in-cell simulations, we calculate the energy distribution function of electrons with various laser and plasma conditions. When the laser intensity is relativistic and the spatial scale of laser is larger than electron inertial scale, the electrons are nonthermally accelerated by incoherent wakeeld. The distribution functions are universally represented by power law spectra with its index 2.

50m 1.5 1.0 30 y 0.5 Ey/E0 0.0 20 -0.5 -1.0 10 -1.5

40

0 0 50 20 40 x 60 80 100m

40

8 6 ne/n0 4

30 m 20

2 10 0

0 0 20 40 m 60 80 100

INTRODUCTION It is considered that the diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) is a major acceleration mechanism of the cosmic rays within our galaxy. On the other hand, the origin of extragalactic cosmic rays have not been known yet. Recently, Hoshino [1] reported that efcient particle acceleration by wakeeld induced by large amplitude precursor electromagnetic (light) waves in the upstream of relativistic perpendicular shock waves. In astrophysical plasmas only optical observations are possible but it is impossible to directly observe the eld and particle quantities. Thus, there is no way to check above analytical models and any theories by experiments. The only way was numerical experiments. However, a new eld, laboratory astrophysics, is developing for the purposes of simulating the space and astrophysical circumstances in laboratory plasmas. For instance, one can replace the large amplitude electromagnetic waves with a intensive laser pulse. Then the wakeeld generation and resulting particle acceleration are well known in the laboratory plasmas. The wakeeld acceleration was rstly proposed by [2], and nearly monoenergetic electron acceleration by an intensive short laser pulse has been investigated intensively due to the possible applications [6, 3, 4, 5]. To produce monoenergetic electrons, the laser pulse has to have a comparable or smaller pulse scale compared with the plasma wavelength. Contrary, in the astrophysical environments it is considered that the shock environments are much larger than the electron inertial scale. In this paper we discuss the wakeeld acceleration of electrons by a large scale laser pulse compared with the electron inertial scale, by performing particle-in-cell simulations. Note that the argument here can be proved by experiment. We can check a astrophysical model by experiments. 1 Fig. 1 The laser electric eld (a) and the electron number density (b) are shown. The laser intensity a0 = 3.3, and the initial density n0 = 4 1019 cm3 . NUMERICAL EXPERIMENTS We perform particle simulations in two spatial and three velocity dimensions by using object-oriented particlein-cell (OOPIC) code [7]. The typical parameters used in the runs are: the laser wavelength L = 1m, the initial waist size w0 = 10m, the pulse duration = 250fs, the number of grids of simulation box (Nx , Ny ) = (2048, 256) corresponding to the physical size Lx = 102.4m and Ly = 51.2m, and the grid size dx = dy/4 = 0.05m. The time step is decided from the Courant condition. The number of macro-particles per cell is typically 30. A Gaussian laser pulse linearly polarized in the y direction is launched into a pre-ionized electron-proton plasma and propagates in the x direction. The protons are assumed to be static background, since the laser scale is larger than the electron inertial scale but much smaller than the proton inertial length. To save the computation time, the so-called moving window algorithm is used [8]. There are two essential parameters in the wakeeld acceleration: the peak laser intensity and the plasma density. We discuss those parameter dependence on the acceleration process. We set the peak laser intensity I0 = 1.5 1019 W/cm2 corresponding to the normalized vector potential a0 eA/(mc2 ) = 3.3 where e is the element charge, A is the vector potential, m is the electron mass and c , and the plasma density n0 = 4 1019 cm3 corresponding to the ratio of laser to plasma frequency p /L = 0.19

Fig. 2 The intensity dependence of the momentum distribution function of the electrons are shown. Figure 1 shows the y component of the electric eld Ey (mainly laser electric eld) and the electron density ne , both normalized to their initial values, at t = 0.72ps . When a intensive laser a > 1 propagates in a plasma, the electrons are expelled by the poneromotive of the laser pulse, resulting in an electron cavity or the so-called ion bubble formation [6]. Since the laser pulse is longer and wider than the plasma wavelength 2c/p , there are several bubbles, and they are relatively irregular compared with those for the monoenergetic electrons. When the pulse duration and the spot size is comparable to or smaller than the plasma wavelength, the waveeld is more coherent thus the acceleration is also rather regular. Figure 2 shows the momentum distribution functions of the electrons with both logarithmic scales when (a) a0 = 0.33, (b) a0 = 3.3 (corresponding to Fig. 1), and a = 10. It is clearly shown that when the laser intensity is relativistic a > 1 the electrons are accelerated nonthermally, and that the spectra are represented as power law spectra. The power law index is 2 independent from the intensity when a > 1. Figure 3shows the density dependence on the acceleration process. We x the laser intensity a0 = 3.3 and change the electron density (a) ne = 1 1019 (p /L = 0.1), (b) ne = 4 1019 (p /L = 0.19) corresponding to Fig. 1, (c) ne = 1.6 1020 (p /L = 0.38) and (d) ne = 4 1020 (p /L = 0.63). The computation times are different for different density. The distribution functions are far away from the thermal Maxwellian, but power law type spectra. Importantly the spectral index is about 2 again independent from the electron density. SUMMARY We have discussed the nonthermal acceleration of charged particles by incoherent wakeeld induced by a laser pulse. When the laser intensity is relativistic a > 1, the electrons are nonthermally accelerated, resulting in a power law spectrum. The spectral index is universally 2 independent from the laser intensity and the plasma density. A similar acceleration mechanism can be taken place in the astrophysical relativistic shock environments.

Fig. 3 The density dependence of the momentum distribution function of the electrons are shown. REMARKS The authors would like to thank M. Hoshino, T. Kato, Y. Sakawa and H. Takabe for their helpful comments. REFERENCES [1] M. Hoshino, accepted (2007). [2] T. Tajima and J. M. Dawson, Physical Review Letters 43, 267 (1979). [3] S. P. D. Mangles, C. D. Murphy, Z. Najmudin, A. G. R. Thomas, J. L. Collier, A. E. Dangor, E. J. Divall, P. S. Foster, J. G. Gallacher, C. J. Hooker, et al., Nature 431, 535 (2004). [4] C. G. R. Geddes, C. Toth, J. van Tilborg, E. Esarey, C. B. Schroeder, D. Bruhwiler, C. Nieter, J. Cary, and W. P. Leemans, Nature 431, 538 (2004). [5] J. Faure, Y. Glinec, A. Pukhov, S. Kiselev, S. Gordienko, E. Lefebvre, J.-P. Rousseau, F. Burgy, and V. Malka, Nature 431, 541 (2004). [6] A. Pukhov and J. Meyer-ter-Vehn, Applied Physics B: Lasers and Optics 74, 355 (2002). [7] J. P. Verboncoeur, A. B. Langdon, and N. T. Gladd, Computer Physics Communications 87, 199 (1995). [8] D. L. Bruhwiler, R. E. Giacone, J. R. Cary, J. P. Verboncoeur, P. Mardahl, E. Esarey, W. P. Leemans, and B. A. Shadwick, Physical Review Special Topics Accelerators and Beams 4, 101302 (2001).