Analytical estimates of proton acceleration in laser-produced turbulent plasmas

With the advent of high power lasers, new opportunities have opened up for simulating astrophysical processes in the laboratory. We show that second-order Fermi acceleration can be directly investigated at the National Ignition Facility, Livermore. This requires measuring the momentum-space diffusio...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Beyer, K, Reville, B, Bott, A, Park, H, Sarkar, S, Gregori, G
Format: Journal article
Published: Cambridge University Press 2018
Description
Summary:With the advent of high power lasers, new opportunities have opened up for simulating astrophysical processes in the laboratory. We show that second-order Fermi acceleration can be directly investigated at the National Ignition Facility, Livermore. This requires measuring the momentum-space diffusion of 3 MeV protons produced within a turbulent plasma generated by a laser. Treating Fermi acceleration as a biased diffusion process, we show analytically that a measurable broadening of the initial proton distribution is then expected for particles exiting the plasma.