Electron polarization in ultrarelativistic plasma current filamentation instabilities

Abstract

Plasma current filamentation of an ultrarelativistic electron beam impinging on an overdense plasma is investigated, with emphasis on radiation-induced electron polarization. Particle-in-cell simulations provide the classification and in-depth analysis of three different regimes of the current filaments, namely, the normal filament, abnormal filament, and quenching regimes. We show that electron radiative polarization emerges during the instability along the azimuthal direction in the momentum space, which significantly varies across the regimes. We put forward an intuitive Hamiltonian model to trace the origin of the electron polarization dynamics. In particular, we discern the role of nonlinear transverse motion of plasma filaments, which induces asymmetry in radiative spin flips, yielding an accumulation of electron polarization. Our results break the conventional perception that quasi-symmetric fields are inefficient for generating radiative spin-polarized beams, suggesting the potential of electron polarization as a source of new information on laboratory and astrophysical plasma instabilities.

arXiv comment7 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (41)

• The Physics of Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Generation of Magnetic Fields in the Relativistic Shock of Gamma-Ray-Burst Sources
• Particle acceleration in relativistic collisionless shocks: Fermi process at last?
• Interpenetrating plasma shells: near-equipartition magnetic field generation and non-thermal particle acceleration
• Modelling Gamma Ray Emission and Pair Production in High-Intensity Laser-Matter Interactions
• QED cascades induced by circularly polarized laser fields
• Observation of magnetic field generation via the Weibel instability in interpenetrating plasma flows
• Extended PIC schemes for physics in ultra-strong laser fields: review and developments
• The microphysics of collisionless shock waves
• Monte Carlo calculations of pair production in high-intensity laser-plasma interactions
• Relativistic Shocks: Particle Acceleration and Magnetization
• Filamentation instability of counter-streaming laser-driven plasmas
• Stochastic Particle Acceleration in Multiple Magnetic Islands during Reconnection
• Ultrarelativistic electron beam polarization in single-shot interaction with an ultraintense laser pulse
• On the Prospect of Studying Nonperturbative QED with Beam-Beam Collisions
• Magnetic reconnection in the era of exascale computing and multiscale experiments
• Exact relativistic kinetic theory of an electron beam-plasma system: hierarchy of the competing modes in the system parameter space
• Polarized positron beams via intense two-color laser pulses
• Theory of Radiative Electron Polarization in Strong Laser Fields
• Cosmic-ray-induced filamentation instability in collisionless shocks
• Fundamentals of collisionless shocks for astrophysical application, 2. Relativistic shocks
• Ultrafast Polarization of an Electron Beam in an Intense Bi-chromatic Laser Field
• Production of Highly Polarized Positron Beams via Helicity Transfer from Polarized Electrons in a Strong Laser Field
• Coherent Electromagnetic Emission from Relativistic Magnetized Shocks
• Ultrarelativistic polarized positron jets via collision of electron and ultraintense laser beams
• Constraining the magnetic field structure in collisionless relativistic shocks with a radio afterglow polarization upper limit in GW170817
• Giant collimated gamma-ray flashes
• Physics of Weibel-mediated relativistic collisionless shocks
• Magnetic field amplification by the Weibel instability at planetary and astrophysical high-Mach-number shocks
• Weibel Filament Decay and Thermalization in Collisionless Shocks and Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows
• Kinetic simulations of nonrelativistic perpendicular shocks of young supernova remnants. III. Magnetic reconnection
• Retrieving transient magnetic fields of ultrarelativistic laser plasma via ejected electron polarization
• Collisionless Weibel shocks and electron acceleration in gamma-ray bursts
• Electron spin- and photon polarization-resolved probabilities of strong-field QED processes
• Magnetic field amplification by a nonlinear electron streaming instability
• Precision Electron-Beam Polarimetry using Compton Scattering at 1 GeV
• Stochasticity in radiative polarization of ultrarelativistic electrons in an ultrastrong laser pulse
• Spatiotemporal dynamics of ultrarelativistic beam-plasma instabilities
• Radiative polarization dynamics of relativistic electrons in an intense electromagnetic field
• Weibel instability in hot plasma flows with production of gamma-rays and electron-positron pairs
• Deciphering in situ electron dynamics of ultrarelativistic plasma via polarization pattern of emitted gamma photons

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Spin-polarized electron beam generation in the colliding-pulse injection scheme
• Electron slingshot acceleration in relativistic preturbulent shocks explored via emitted photon polarization
• Laser-driven lepton polarization in the quantum radiation-dominated reflection regime
• Branching of high-current relativistic electron beam in porous materials
• Polarized QED Cascades over Pulsar Polar Caps
• Plasma acceleration of polarized particle beams
• The effect of the electron's spin magnetic moment on quantum radiation in strong electromagnetic fields
• Parameter space investigation for spin-dependent electron diffraction in the Kapitza-Dirac effect
• Electron penetration heating in turbulent magnetic loops driven by nonrelativistic laser-plasma interaction
• Intrinsic Nonlocality of Spin- and Polarization-Resolved Probabilities in Strong-Field Quantum Electrodynamics