Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
Plasma could be wrangled to collide photons and yield matter, according to physicists who ran simulations to explore the practical applications of a world-famous equation.
The equation at work here is Einstein’s E = mc^2, which establishes a relationship between energy and mass; specifically, the equation holds that energy and mass are equivalent when the latter is multiplied by the speed of light, squared.
A team led by scientists at Osaka University and UC San Diego recently simulated the collisions of photons using lasers; their results suggest that the collisions would yield pairs of electrons and positrons. The positrons—the antiparticle of the electron—could then be accelerated by the laser’s electric field to produce a positron beam. Their results are published in Physical Review Letters.
“We feel that our proposal is experimentally feasible, and we look forward to real-world implementation,” said Alexey Arefiev, a physicist at UC San Diego and co-author of the paper, in a University of Osaka release.
The experimental set-up is possible, the release added, at laser intensities that currently exist. The researchers used simulations to test potential experimental set-ups and found a compelling one. The photon-photon collider uses the Breit-Wheeler process to produce matter, meaning it annihilates gamma-rays to produce electron-positron pairs.
[...] “This research shows a potential way to explore the mysteries of the universe in a laboratory setting,” said Vyacheslav Lukin, a program director at the National Science Foundation, which supported the recent research. “The future possibilities at today’s and tomorrow’s high-power laser facilities just became even more intriguing.”
The experiment could provide a way to peer into the universe’s composition, by bringing some far-out physics much closer to home. But for that to happen, an experiment will actually need to be built.
Journal Reference:
K. Sugimoto, Y. He, N. Iwata, et al., Positron Generation and Acceleration in a Self-Organized Photon Collider Enabled by an Ultraintense Laser Pulse, Phys. Rev. Lett. 131, 065102 – Published 9 August 2023. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.065102
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Saturday December 30, @06:28AM (10 children)
c^2 is so big that while I thought it possible to convert energy to matter, it would take too fricking much energy. What are we talking about here, 1 terawatt to produce 1 nanogram of matter?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Mojibake Tengu on Saturday December 30, @09:23AM (9 children)
Maybe, an anti-matter is more useful in combat than common matter is. If delivered nanogram of positrons hitting the target can release a terawatt again...
Respect Authorities. Know your social status. Woke responsibly.
(Score: 3, Touché) by mhajicek on Saturday December 30, @09:32AM (5 children)
Or you could just aim your terawatt laser directly at the enemy.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Mojibake Tengu on Saturday December 30, @10:08AM (4 children)
Definitely not you need a curved beam, like to other side of planet.
Respect Authorities. Know your social status. Woke responsibly.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday December 30, @11:42AM (2 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 30, @12:19PM (1 child)
Since we're talking fantasy by this point,
> So a mirror, eh?
Nah, just use a long wavelength laser, so the ionosphere will reflect it around the world...just like ham radio on a good day.
Back to reality, that better be a **very** shiny mirror, if it absorbs even a tiny, tiny fraction of the terawatt laser power, it's going to melt very quickly indeed.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday December 30, @12:40PM
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 30, @12:21PM
Why not aim directly, thru the planet? Saves all sorts of complexity(grin).
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Sunday December 31, @02:59AM (2 children)
My bet is that this process is ridiculously inefficient. I think they'd be lucky to get a megawatt back again.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 02, @01:57AM (1 child)
As for bombs, I don't see bombs using antimatter being better than nukes in practice. 0.5 gram of antimatter + 0.5 gram of matter = 20 kilotons = 1 Nagasaki atomic bomb. Not worth it.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday January 02, @04:32AM
Unless you're smuggling your 20 kiloton bomb in a cell phone or belt buckle. Could be crazy times for some future civilization.
(Score: 2) by WizardFusion on Saturday December 30, @01:13PM
n/t
(Score: 2) by turgid on Friday January 05, @09:51PM
Over 20 years ago I spoke to a guy who had done research into inertial confinement nuclear fusion who said that the laser beams were so intense that you got pair production along them.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].