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The probability that an electromagnetic wave can flip the spin of an electron is calculated. It is assumed that the electron resides in a uniform magnetic field and interacts with an incoming electromagnetic pulse. The scattering matrix is constructed and the time needed to flip the spin is calculated.
The origin and acceleration of high-energy particles, constituting cosmic rays, is likely to remain an important topic in modern astrophysics. Among the two categories galactic and solar cosmic rays, the latter are much less investigated. The primary source of solar cosmic ray particles are impulsive explosions of the magnetized plasma, known as solar flares and coronal mass ejections. These particles, however, are characterized by relatively low energies compared to their galactic counterparts. In this work, we explore the resonance wave–wave (RWW) interaction between the polarized electromagnetic radiation emitted by the solar active regions and the quantum waves associated with high-energy, relativistic electrons generated during solar flares. Mathematically, the RWW interaction problem boils down to analyzing a Klein–Gordon Equation (spinless electrons) embedded in the electromagnetic field. We find that RWW could accelerate the relativistic electrons to enormous energies even comparable to energies in the galactic cosmic rays.
The use of nuclei to study electroweak probes is becoming increasingly relevant experimentally. The success of dark matter and neutrino experiments strongly depends on the ability to control nuclear effects in order to extract the fundamental parameters associated with external probes. Therefore, reliable theoretical calculations of nuclear structure and reactions, with well-controlled errors, are crucial for the success of experimental efforts. Currently, chiral effective field theory ($\chi$EFT) coupled with {\it ab-initio} methods represents one of the best approaches that fulfills these requirements. To use this approach as a tool for studying fundamental physics, it is essential to validate it against experimental data for which the calculations are well under control, such as the elastic scattering of electrons on nuclei. In this proceeding, I will present recent developments in the fitting of electromagnetic currents derived using $\chi$EFT and the calculation of electromagnetic form factors of light nuclei. The results of these calculations demonstrate the strength of the theory in describing the interaction of nuclei with electromagnetic probes over a broad range of momentum transfers and highlight the robustness of $\chi$EFT for analyzing future experimental data aimed at extracting fundamental parameters.
We discuss the prospects of detecting the sources of ultrahigh energy (UHE) cosmic ray (CR) nuclei via their emission of cosmogenic {gamma} rays in the GeV to TeV energy range. These {gamma} rays result from electromagnetic cascades initiated by high energy photons, electrons, and positrons that are emitted by CRs during their propagation in the cosmic radiation background and are independent of the simultaneous emission of {gamma} rays in the vicinity of the source. The corresponding production power by UHE CR nuclei (with mass number A and charge Z) is dominated by pion photo production ({proportional_to}A) and Bethe-Heitler pair production ({proportional_to}Z{sup 2}). We show that the cosmogenic {gamma}-ray signal from a single steady UHE CR source is typically more robust with respect to variations of the source composition and injection spectrum than the accompanying signal of cosmogenic neutrinos. We study the diffuse emission from the sum of extragalactic CR sources as well as the point-source emission of the closest sources.
The Mainz Microtron MAMI is an ideal facility to study the hadron structure with the electromagnetic probe. With the new accelerator stage (HDSM), which went into operation in 2007, high-intensity polarized electron and photon beams with energies up to 1.6 GeV are delivered to the experiments. Polarized targets and recoil polarimeters in combination with dedicated detectors are available for precision experiments in hadron physics. In this article, an overview over selected recent results is given.
The development of dynamic components for controlling wave fronts in the sub-terahertz region of the electromagnetic spectrum has emerged as a frontier research topic for many applications in sensing and communications. One approach which has attracted much attention involves the use of active metasurfaces, tiled arrays of sub-wavelength elements with properties that can be reconfigured via external actuation. In nearly all cases, these metasurfaces are employed as either transmissive or reflective elements, taking advantage of their strong and tunable interaction with free-space electromagnetic waves. These interactions can be significantly enhanced through the use of surface waves propagating parallel to the metasurface array, although very few studies have exploited this option. Here, we integrate a metasurface into the interior of a parallel-plate waveguide in a configuration explicitly designed to exploit this surface-wave geometry. We show that varying the electrical properties of the active metasurface changes the wave vector of the guided mode, and thereby alters the emission angle of radiation out-coupled through a leaky-wave slot aperture. These results, which are consistent with numerical simulations, represent a new approach to broadband beam steering suitable for the sub-terahertz spectral range.
Peter Ware Higgs, a particle physics icon, died on 8 April at the age of 94. Higgs illuminated the path to understanding how exact symmetries obeyed by the laws of nature might be masked by an asymmetric ground state that is an outcome of symmetrical laws. In 1964, he posited that a field filling all of space could be the agent that hides the underlying symmetries of the fundamental interactions. Additionally, when excited, the field reveals itself as a massive unstable particle. In the context of a joint theory of electromagnetism and the weak interaction, that particle—popularly called the Higgs boson—emerged as the keystone of the standard model of particle physics. The decades-long search for the boson engaged the passion of thousands of scientists and engineers and stirred the curiosity of the public the world over.
Polarization studies of the vibrational spectra of clusters (H{sub 2}O){sub n} in samples of single-crystal fluorapatite of different deposits were carried out by infrared (IR) spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The IR and Raman spectra were measured for two orthogonal directions of the external excitation field: parallel and perpendicular to the c-channels in fluorapatite single crystals. Interpretation of the interaction of the external electromagnetic field with clusters of water situated in microvoids and microcracks of the crystal with the structural groups of F…HO of apatite is given in the framework of the dipole–dipole approximation. This interaction has an induction–resonance character (IR spectroscopy) caused by the transfer of vibrational excitation from the F…HO groups to (H{sub 2}O){sub n} clusters. In the case of Raman spectroscopy, the induction character of the excitation of (H{sub 2}O){sub n} clusters takes place due to the transfer of electron excitation from the F…HO groups.
Fermilab's Tevatron is currently the world's highest energy accelerator in which tightly focused beams of 980 GeV protons and antiprotons collide at two dedicated interaction points (IPs). Both beams share the same beam pipe and magnet aperture and, in order to avoid multiple detrimental head-on collisions, the beams are placed on separated orbits everywhere except the main IPs by using high-voltage (HV) electrostatic separators. The electromagnetic beam-beam interaction at the main IPs together with the long-range interactions between separated beams adversely affect the collider performance, reducing the luminosity integral per store (period of continuous collisions) by 10-30%. Tuning the collider operation for optimal performance becomes more and more cumbersome as the beam intensities and luminosity increase. The long-range effects which (besides being nonlinear) vary from bunch to bunch are particularly hard to mitigate. A comprehensive review of the beam-beam effects in the Tevatron Collider Run II can be found in Ref. [1]. The beam-beam effects have been the dominating sources of beam loss and lifetime limitations in the Tevatron proton-antiproton collider [1]. Electron lenses were originally proposed for compensation of electromagnetic long-range and head-on beam-beam interactions of proton and antiproton beams [2]. Results of successful employment of two electron lenses built and installed in the Tevatron are reported in [3,4,5]. In this paper we present design features of the Tevatron electron lenses (TELs), discuss the generation of electron beams, describe different modes of operation and outline the technical parameters of various subsystems.
Under the framework of the two-timescale method, we derived the two-temperature-electron Zakharov equations which can describe the wave-wave interaction among Langmuir wave, electromagnetic wave, and electron acoustic waves. Numerical results reveal that the modulation instability will lead the wave field collapse into a turbulent state. The spectrum obtained from the Fourier analysis shows a cascade of energy from large to small scales. In the collapse processes, the hot electrons are expelled by the ponderomotive force induced by the high frequency waves, and then density cavitons are formed.
Electromagnetic interference (EMI) is an ever-present challenge at laser facilities such as the National Ignition Facility (NIF). The major source of EMI at such facilities is laser-target interaction that can generate intense electromagnetic fields within, and outside of, the laser target chamber. In addition, the diagnostics themselves can be a source of EMI, even interfering with themselves. In this paper we describe EMI generated by ARIANE and DIXI, present measurements, and discuss effects of the diagnostic-generated EMI on ARIANE's CCD and on a PMT nearby DIXI. Finally we present some of the efforts we have made to mitigate the effects of diagnostic-generated EMI on NIF diagnostics.
We study some properties of the dark degeneracy, which is the fact that what we measure in gravitational experiments is the energy-momentum tensor of the total dark sector, and any split into components (as in dark matter and dark energy) is arbitrary. In fact, just one dark fluid is necessary to obtain exactly the same cosmological and astrophysical phenomenology as the {Lambda}CDM model. We work explicitly the first-order perturbation theory and show that beyond the linear order the dark degeneracy is preserved under some general assumptions. Then we construct the dark fluid from a collection of interacting fluids. Finally, we try to break the degeneracy with a general class of couplings to baryonic matter. Nonetheless, we show that these interactions can also be understood in the context of the {Lambda}CDM model as between dark matter and baryons. For this last investigation we choose two independent parametrizations for the interactions, one inspired by electromagnetism and the other by chameleon theories. Then, we constrain them with a joint analysis of CMB and supernovae observational data.
Specific features of the interaction of a relatively weak electromagnetic pulse with a nonisothermal current-carrying plasma in which the electron drift velocity is much higher than the ion-acoustic velocity, but lower than the electron thermal velocity, are studied. If the state of the plasma with ion-acoustic turbulence does not change during the pulse action, the field penetrates into the plasma in the ordinary diffusion regime, but the diffusion coefficient in this case is inversely proportional to the anomalous conductivity. If, during the pulse action, the particle temperatures and the current-driving field change due to turbulent heating, the field penetrates into the plasma in the subdiffusion regime. It is shown how the presence of subdiffusion can be detected by measuring the reflected field.
The equation of the dynamics of the magnetic moment motion that has been averaged over the ensemble of nonequilibrium spin-injected electrons in a ferromagnetic transition in the presence of exchange interaction, interaction with an external electromagnetic field, and a thermostat has been obtained taking into account the spatial inhomogeneity of the charge carrier distribution. It has been shown that taking into account the spatial inhomogeneity of the charge carrier distribution in the equation of the dynamics of the magnetic moment motion allows for describing the various processes of electron transfer in the magnetic transition. The probability of quantum transitions of electrons with opposite spin directions, which determine spin relaxation in interaction with a thermostat, has been estimated. It has been shown that the anisotropy of the radiation medium is determined not only by the anisotropy of the sd-exchange tensor, but also by the additional anisotropy that is caused by the electron impulse derivatives of this tensor. The considered phenomena have a great potential for the detection of new effects and development of new devices based on them, including compact tunable radiation sources in the terahertz frequency range, which is obviously difficult to generate.
Test particle calculations of the interaction of electrons and ions with obliquely propagating electromagnetic ion cyclotron waves are presented. Such waves have frequencies below the ion cyclotron frequency. The test particle calculations show that field-aligned electrons can be accelerated parallel to the magnetic field by such waves and that ions can be accelerated perpendicular to the magnetic field to form ion conics. Ions can be accelerated much more effectively when the wave frequency is half the ion gyrofrequency. The results are applicable to acceleration of ions and electrons in the low-Beta plasma of the auroral zone.
MicroBooNE (the Micro Booster Neutrino Experiment) is a short-baseline neutrino experiment based on the technology of a liquid-argon time-projection chamber (LArTPC), and has recently completed its first year of data-taking in the Fermilab Booster Neutrino Beam. It aims to address the anomalous excess of events with an electromagnetic final state in MiniBooNE, to measure neutrino-argon interaction cross sections, and to provide relevant R\&D for the future LArTPC experiments, such as DUNE. In these proceedings, we present the first reconstructed energy spectrum of Michel electrons from cosmic muon decays, the first kinematic distributions of the candidate muon tracks from $\nu_{\mu}$-argon charged-current interactions, and a demonstration of an electromagnetic shower reconstruction from $\pi^0$s produced by $\nu_{\mu}$-argon charged-current interactions. The results demonstrate the first fully automated reconstruction and selection algorithms in a large LArTPC and serve as foundations for future measurements.
Structural health monitoring of an engineered component in a harsh environment is critical for multiple DOE missions including nuclear fuel cycle, subsurface energy production/storage, and energy conversion. Supported by a seeding Laboratory Directed Research & Development (LDRD) project, we have explored a new concept for structural health monitoring by introducing a self-sensing capability into structural components. The concept is based on two recent technological advances: metamaterials and additive manufacturing. A self-sensing capability can be engineered by embedding a metastructure, for example, a sheet of electromagnetic resonators, either metallic or dielectric, into a material component. This embedment can now be realized using 3-D printing. The precise geometry of the embedded metastructure determines how the material interacts with an incident electromagnetic wave. Any change in the structure of the material (e.g., straining, degradation, etc.) would inevitably perturbate the embedded metastructures or metasurface array and therefore alter the electromagnetic response of the material, thus resulting in a frequency shift of a reflection spectrum that can be detected passively and remotely. This new sensing approach eliminates complicated environmental shielding, in-situ power supply, and wire routing that are generally required by the existing active-circuit-based sensors. The work documented in this report has preliminarily demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed concept. The work has established the needed simulation tools and experimental capabilities for future studies.
MeV-GeV dark matter (DM) is theoretically well motivated but remarkably unexplored. This proposal presents the MeV-GeV DM discovery potential for a $\sim$1 m$^3$ segmented CsI(Tl) scintillator detector placed downstream of the Hall A beam-dump at Jefferson Lab, receiving up to 10$^{22}$ electrons-on-target (EOT) in 285 days. This experiment (Beam-Dump eXperiment or BDX) would be sensitive to elastic DM-electron and to inelastic DM scattering at the level of 10 counts per year, reaching the limit of the neutrino irreducible background. The distinct signature of a DM interaction will be an electromagnetic shower of few hundreds of MeV, together with a reduced activity in the surrounding active veto counters. A detailed description of the DM particle $\chi$ production in the dump and subsequent interaction in the detector has been performed by means of Monte Carlo simulations. Different approaches have been used to evaluate the expected backgrounds: the cosmogenic background has been extrapolated from the results obtained with a prototype detector running at INFN-LNS (Italy), while the beam-related background has been evaluated by GEANT4 Monte Carlo simulations. The proposed experiment will be sensitive to large regions of DM parameter space, exceeding the discovery potential of existing and planned experiments in the MeV-GeV DM mass range by up to two orders of magnitude.