Upcoming and planned experiments combining increasingly intense lasers and energetic
particle beams will access new regimes of nonlinear, relativistic, quantum effects. This …

The dynamics of charged particles in electromagnetic fields is an essential component of
understanding the most extreme environments in our Universe. In electromagnetic fields of …

We review common extensions of particle-in-cell (PIC) schemes which account for strong
field phenomena in laser-plasma interactions. After describing the physical processes of …

Since the invention of chirped pulse amplification, which was recognized by a Nobel Prize in
physics in 2018, there has been a continuing increase in available laser intensity. Combined …

We demonstrate that charged particles in a sufficiently intense standing wave are
compressed toward, and oscillate synchronously at, the antinodes of the electric field. We …

Electromagnetic cascades have the potential to act as a high-energy photon source of
unprecedented brightness. Such a source would offer new experimental possibilities in …

The eXawatt Center for Extreme Light Studies project aimed to create a large scientific
infrastructure based on lasers with giant peak power. The project relies on the significant …

The production of electron-positron pairs from light is a famous prediction of quantum
electrodynamics. Yet it is often emphasized that the number of produced pairs has no …

QED cascades are complex avalanche processes of hard photon emission and electron-
positron pair creation driven by ultrastrong electromagnetic fields. They play a fundamental …

As an alternative to Compton backscattering and bremsstrahlung, the process of colliding
high-energy electron beams with strong laser fields can more efficiently provide both a …