arXiv subjects

Chris Orban

Publications and source records attributed to Chris Orban.

27 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

Particle-in-Cell Simulations of Electron Beam Production from Infrared Ultra-intense Laser Interactions

Advances in ultra-intense laser technology are enabling, for the first time, relativistic intensities at mid-infrared (mid-IR) wavelengths. Anticipating further experimental research in this domain, we present high-resolution two dimensional Particle-in-Cell (PIC) simulation results using the Large- Scale Plasma (LSP) code that explore intense mid-IR laser interactions with dense targets. We present the results of thirty PIC simulations over a wide range of intensities (0.03 < $a_0$ < 39) and wavelengths (λ =780 nm, 3 μm, and 10 μm). Earlier studies, limited to λ =780 nm and $a_0 \sim$ 1 [1, 2], identified super-ponderomotive electron acceleration in the laser specular direction for normal- incidence laser interactions with dense targets. We extend this research to mid-IR wavelengths and find a more general result that normal-incidence super-ponderomotive electron acceleration occurs provided that the laser intensity is not highly relativistic ($a_0 \lesssim 1$) and that the pre-plasma scale length is similar to or longer than the laser wavelength. Under these conditions, ejected electron angular and energy distributions are similar to expectations from an analytic model used in [2]. We also find that, for $a_0 \sim 1$, the mid-IR simulations exhibit a classic ponderomotive steepening pattern with multiple peaks in the ion and electron density distribution. Experimental validation of this basic laser-plasma interaction process will be possible in the near future using mid-IR laser technology and interferometry.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2016

3D PIC simulations of electron beams created via reflection of intense laser light from a water target

We present 3D Particle-in-Cell (PIC) modeling of an ultra-intense laser experiment by the Extreme Light group at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) using the PIC code LSP. This is the first time PIC simulations have been performed in 3D for this experiment which involves an ultra-intense, short-pulse (30 fs) laser interacting with a water jet target at normal incidence. These 3D PIC simulation results are compared to results from 2D(3$v$) PIC simulations for both $5.4~\cdot~10^{17}$ W cm$^{-2}$ and $3~\cdot~10^{17}$ W cm$^{-2}$ intensities. Comparing the 2D(3$v$) and 3D simulation results, the laser-energy-to-ejected-electron-energy conversion efficiencies were comparable, but the angular distribution of ejected electrons show interesting differences with qualitative differences at higher intensity. An analytic plane-wave model is discussed which provides some explanation for the angular distribution and energies of ejected electrons in the 2D(3$v$) simulations. We also performed a 3D simulation with circularly polarized light and found a significantly higher conversion efficiency and peak electron energy, which is promising for future experiments.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2015

Backward-propagating MeV electrons from $10^{18}$ W/cm$^2$ laser interactions with water

We present an experimental study of the generation of $\sim$MeV electrons opposite to the direction of laser propagation following the relativistic interaction at normal incidence of a $\sim$3 mJ, $10^{18}$ W/cm$^2$ short pulse laser with a flowing 30 $μ$m diameter water column target. Faraday cup measurements record hundreds of pC charge accelerated to energies exceeding 120 keV, and energy-resolved measurements of secondary x-ray emissions reveal an x-ray spectrum peaking above 800 keV, which is significantly higher energy than previous studies with similar experimental conditions and more than five times the $\sim$110 keV ponderomotive energy scale for the laser. We show that the energetic x-rays generated in the experiment result from backward-going, high-energy electrons interacting with the focusing optic and vacuum chamber walls with only a small component of x-ray emission emerging from the target itself. We also demonstrate that the high energy radiation can be suppressed through the attenuation of the nanosecond-scale pre-pulse. These results are supported by 2D Particle-in-Cell (PIC) simulations of the laser-plasma interaction that exhibit beam-like backward-propagating MeV electrons.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2015

Backward-Propagating MeV Electrons in Ultra-Intense Laser Interactions: Standing Wave Acceleration and Coupling to the Reflected Laser Pulse

Laser-accelerated electron beams have been created at a kHz repetition rate from the {\it reflection} of intense ($\sim10^{18}$ W/cm$^2$), $\sim$40 fs laser pulses focused on a continuous water-jet in an experiment at the Air Force Research Laboratory. This paper investigates Particle-in-Cell (PIC) simulations of the laser-target interaction to identify the physical mechanisms of electron acceleration in this experiment. We find that the standing-wave pattern created by the overlap of the incident and reflected laser is particularly important because this standing wave can "inject" electrons into the reflected laser pulse where the electrons are further accelerated. We identify two regimes of standing wave acceleration: a highly relativistic case ($a_0~\geq~1$), and a moderately relativistic case ($a_0~\sim~0.5$) which operates over a larger fraction of the laser period. In previous studies, other groups have investigated the highly relativistic case for its usefulness in launching electrons in the forward direction. We extend this by investigating electron acceleration in the {\it specular (back reflection) direction} and over a wide range of intensities ($10^{17}-10^{19}$ W cm$^{-2}$).

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2014

Cosmological Perturbation Theory as a Tool for Estimating Box-Scale Effects in N-body Simulations

In performing cosmological N-body simulations, it is widely appreciated that the growth of structure on the largest scales within a simulation box will be inhibited by the finite size of the simulation volume. Following ideas set forth in Seto (1999), this paper shows that standard (a.k.a. 1-loop) cosmological perturbation theory (SPT) can be used to predict, in an approximate way, the deleterious effect of the box scale on the power spectrum of density fluctuations in simulation volumes. Alternatively, this approach can be used to quickly estimate post facto the effect of the box scale on power spectrum results from existing simulations. In this way SPT can help determine whether larger box sizes or other more-sophisticated methods are needed to achieve a particular level of precision for a given application (e.g. simulations to measure the non-linear evolution of baryon acoustic oscillations). I focus on SPT in this note and show that its predictions differ only by about a factor of two or less from the measured suppression inferred from both powerlaw and $Λ$CDM $N$-body simulations. It should be possible to improve the accuracy of these predictions through using more-sophisticated perturbation theory models. An appendix compares power spectrum measurements from the powerlaw simulations at outputs where box-scale effects are minimal to perturbation theory models and previously-published fitting functions. These power spectrum measurements are included with this paper to aid efforts to develop new perturbation theory models.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2013

A Radiation-Hydrodynamics Code Comparison for Laser-Produced Plasmas: FLASH versus HYDRA and the Results of Validation Experiments

The potential for laser-produced plasmas to yield fundamental insights into high energy density physics (HEDP) and deliver other useful applications can sometimes be frustrated by uncertainties in modeling the properties and expansion of these plasmas using radiation-hydrodynamics codes. In an effort to overcome this and to corroborate the accuracy of the HEDP capabilities recently added to the publicly available FLASH radiation-hydrodynamics code, we present detailed comparisons of FLASH results to new and previously published results from the HYDRA code used extensively at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. We focus on two very different problems of interest: (1) an Aluminum slab irradiated by 15.3 and 76.7 mJ of "pre-pulse" laser energy and (2) a mm-long triangular groove cut in an Aluminum target irradiated by a rectangular laser beam. Because this latter problem bears a resemblance to astrophysical jets, Grava et al., Phys. Rev. E, 78, (2008) performed this experiment and compared detailed x-ray interferometric measurements of electron number densities to HYDRA simulations. Thus, the former problem provides an opportunity for code-to-code comparison, while the latter provides an opportunity for both code-to-code comparison and validation. Despite radically different schemes for determining the computational mesh, and different equation of state and opacity models, the HYDRA and FLASH codes yield results that are in excellent agreement for both problems and with the experimental data for the latter. Having validated the FLASH code in this way, we use the code to further investigate the formation of the jet seen in the Grava et al. (2008) experiment and discuss its relation to the Wan et al. (1997) experiment at the NOVA laser.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2013

Keeping It Real: Revisiting a Real-Space Approach to Running Ensembles of Cosmological N-body Simulations

In setting up initial conditions for ensembles of cosmological N-body simulations there are, fundamentally, two choices: either maximizing the correspondence of the initial density field to the assumed fourier-space clustering or, instead, matching to real-space statistics and allowing the DC mode (i.e. overdensity) to vary from box to box as it would in the real universe. As a stringent test of both approaches, I perform ensembles of simulations using power law and a "powerlaw times a bump" model inspired by baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO), exploiting the self-similarity of these initial conditions to quantify the accuracy of the matter-matter two-point correlation results. The real-space method, which was originally proposed by Pen 1997 and implemented by Sirko 2005, performed well in producing the expected self-similar behavior and corroborated the non-linear evolution of the BAO feature observed in conventional simulations, even in the strongly-clustered regime (sigma8 >= 1). In revisiting the real-space method championed by Sirko 2005, it was also noticed that this earlier study overlooked an important integral constraint correction to the correlation function in results from the conventional approach that can be important in LambdaCDM simulations with Lbox =< 1 Gpc/h and on scales r >= Lbox / 10. Rectifying this shows that the fourier space and real space methods are about equally accurate and efficient for modeling the evolution and growth of the correlation function, contrary to previous claims. An appendix provides a useful independent-of-epoch analytic formula for estimating the importance of the integral constraint bias on correlation function measurements in LambdaCDM simulations.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2011

Self-Similar Bumps and Wiggles: Isolating the Evolution of the BAO Peak with Power-law Initial Conditions

Motivated by cosmological surveys that demand accurate theoretical modeling of the baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) feature in galaxy clustering, we analyze N-body simulations in which a BAO-like gaussian bump modulates the linear theory correlation function ξ_L(r)=(r_0/r)^{n+3} of an underlying self-similar model with initial power spectrum P(k)=A k^n. These simulations test physical and analytic descriptions of BAO evolution far beyond the range of most studies, since we consider a range of underlying power spectra (n=-0.5, -1, -1.5) and evolve simulations to large effective correlation amplitudes (equivalent to σ_8=4-12 for r_bao = 100 Mpc/h). In all cases, non-linear evolution flattens and broadens the BAO bump in ξ(r) while approximately preserving its area. This evolution resembles a "diffusion" process in which the bump width σ_bao is the quadrature sum of the linear theory width and a length proportional to the rms relative displacement Σ_pair(r_bao}) of particle pairs separated by r_bao. For n=-0.5 and n=-1, we find no detectable shift of the location of the BAO peak, but the peak in the n=-1.5 model shifts steadily to smaller scales, following r_peak}/r_bao = 1-1.08(r_0/r_bao)^{1.5}. The "SimpleRG" perturbation theory scheme and, to a lesser extent, standard 1-loop perturbation theory are fairly successful at explaining the non-linear evolution of the fourier power spectrum of our models. Analytic models also explain why the ξ(r) peak shifts much more for n=-1.5 than for n >= -1, though no ab initio model we have examined reproduces all of our numerical results. Simulations with L_box = 10 r_bao} and L_box = 20 r_bao yield consistent results for ξ(r) at the BAO scale, provided one corrects for the integral constraint imposed by the uniform density box.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2008

Delving Deeper into the Tumultuous Lives of Galactic Dwarfs: Modeling Star Formation Histories

The paucity of observed dwarf galaxies in the Local Group relative to the abundance of predicted dark matter halos remains one of the greatest puzzles of the LCDM paradigm. Solving this puzzle now requires not only matching the numbers of objects but also understanding the details of their star formation histories. We present a summary of such histories derived from the HST data using the color-magnitude diagram fitting method. To reduce observational uncertainties, we condense the data into five cumulative parameters -- the fractions of stellar mass formed in the last 1, 2, 5, and 10 Gyr, and the mean stellar age. We interpret the new data with a phenomenological model based on the mass assembly histories of dark matter halos and the Schmidt law of star formation. The model correctly predicts the radial distribution of the dwarfs and the fractions of stars formed in the last 5 and 10 Gyr. However, in order to be consistent with the observations, the model requires a significant amount of recent star formation in the last 2 Gyr. Within the framework of our model, this prolonged star formation can be achieved by adding a stochastic variation in the density threshold of the star formation law. The model results are not sensitive to late gas accretion, the slope of the Schmidt law, or the details of cosmic reionization. A few discrepancies still remain: our model typically predicts too large stellar masses, only a modest population of ultra-faint dwarfs, and a small number of dwarfs with anomalously young stellar populations. Nevertheless, the observed star formation histories of Local Group dwarfs are generally consistent the expected star formation in cold dark matter halos.

astro-ph↗