In a vacuum, "pairs of particles and antiparticles" called electrons and positrons, which are elementary particles, are repeatedly generated and extinguished in an ultra-short time.The long-term appearance of these paired particles in our space requires more than XNUMX million times the electric field value that current laser technology can achieve (this electric field strength is called the Schwinger limit).

　In May 2018, the research group radiated an ultra-high-intensity laser with a length of several tens of femtoseconds (5 femtosecond is 1 / 10th of 15 seconds) from the outside of the hydrogen compound containing micron-sized bubbles. For the first time in the world, we discovered a unique generation principle called microbubble detonation that occurs at the moment when a bubble contracts to the nanometer scale.

　This time, we performed a three-dimensional simulation of microbubble implosion using an ultra-high intensity laser, and in principle, the density at the time of maximum compression of the bubble is hundreds of thousands to millions of individual densities that can achieve the Schwinger extreme electric field. We found that it doubled.This is the size of sugar cubes and weighs hundreds of kilograms.It was also found that the energy density at the center of the bubble at this time was about one million times higher than that at the center of the sun.These values ​​were considered unattainable on the ground.

　The results of this research are the elucidation of the origin of black holes and high-energy particles, the contribution to medical and industrial application research as a compact neutron source by fusion reaction, and the elucidation of the mystery of the opening of the universe symbolized by the big bang. There is expected.

Paper information:[Physics of Plasmas] Relativistic proton emission from ultrahigh-energy-density nanosphere generated by microbubble implosion