If you put a hole in Mom’s couch reality, it’ll really piss off Mom:
A petawatt laser is a little more complex than the laser pointer with which you torture your kitty.
Osaka University’s Petawatt Lab.
Credit: Phys.orgUnder good experimental conditions, the very fabric of space and time are torn asunder, testing quantum electrodynamics to destruction. And a new mirror may be all we need to get there. …
Plasma mirrors were all the rage a few years ago when petawatt lasers were all fresh and new. The idea is actually very simple. A plasma is a gas of conducting particles, with its electrons being very light and easy to move around. When light hits the plasma, the electrons are accelerated back and forth, following the light’s electric field. In doing so, the electrons absorb and re-emit the light in the opposite direction. In other words, the light reflects from the plasma, just like it does from a chrome bumper.
A plasma is basically already as destroyed as a material can be, so the laser beam cannot damage the plasma.
It was initially thought that plasma mirrors could not act as a good focusing element, though. Essentially, it is impossible to get the shape right. But 24 hours of supercomputer time has shown that a plasma mirror might be the right way to go. New developments in model code allowed researchers to simulate a full 3D laser pulse impacting on a surface. Researcher Henri Vincenti from France has taken advantage of these computational developments to adapt this code to open up new ways to increase the intensity of some very bright lasers.
Ripping holes in reality. Don’t politicians do this already?
Yeah, this is from last year. I’ve been holding onto it, hoping for more news – or for part of the Earth to disappear. But neither has happened, so maybe the evil geniuses are behind schedule.
But it’s still a bit mind blow –
