Professor Steven Rose

Abstract:

We present high resolution X-ray spectroscopy of the active late-type star HR 1099 obtained with the Chandra Low Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer. A spectrum extracted from the early stages of a flare was created to search for enhanced emission due to line coincidence photopumping at X-ray wavelengths, rather than the usual optical and ultraviolet cases. Specifically, we have identified a scheme where a He-like Ne ix line at 11 Å is photopumped by He-like Na x, which predicts intensity enhancement in the Ne ix 82.76 Å transition under the high electron density and large coronal pathlength conditions found in stellar and solar flares. We previously tentatively identified a Ne ix enhancement in a solar flare spectrum, but the result was extremely uncertain. However, Ne ix 82.76 Å was detected at the 3-sigma level in the Chandra spectrum, leading to a measured Ne ix 82.76/13.45 intensity ratio of 0.21 ± 0.08. By contrast, the theoretical ratio from the CHIANTI database is at most 0.031, indicating an enhancement factor of at least 7 ± 3 for the 82.76 Å line, in agreement with the expected value of ∼7–15 from a photopumping plasma model. This confirms detection, for the first time to our knowledge, of X-ray photopumping in an astrophysical object. We note that the identification of such X-ray photopumping in other spatially unresolved sources provides in principle a new diagnostic for independently determining the sizes of their coronal regions.

Abstract:

We report on a direct search for elastic photon-photon scattering using x-ray and 𝛾 photons from a laser-plasma based experiment. A 𝛾 photon beam produced by a laser wak­field accelerator provided a broadband 𝛾 spectrum extending to above 𝐸𝛾 = 200 MeV. These were collided with a dense x-ray field produced by the emission from a laser heated germanium foil at 𝐸𝑥 ≈ 1.4 keV, corresponding to an invariant mass of √𝑠 = 1.22 ± 0.22 MeV. In these asymmetric collisions elastic scattering removes one x-ray and one high-energy 𝛾 photon and outputs two lower energy 𝛾 photons. No changes in the 𝛾 photon spectrum were observed as a result of the collisions allowing us to place a 95% upper bound on the cross section of 1.5 × 1015 μb. Although far from the QED prediction, this represents the lowest upper limit obtained so far for √𝑠 ≲ 1 MeV.

Abstract:

Laser-driven compact particle accelerators can provide ultrashort pulses of broadband X-rays, well suited for undertaking X-ray absorption spectroscopy measurements on a femtosecond timescale. Here the Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (EXAFS) features of the K-edge of a copper sample have been observed over a 250 eV window in a single shot using a laser wakefield accelerator, providing information on both the electronic and ionic structure simultaneously. This capability will allow the investigation of ultrafast processes, and in particular, probing high-energy-density matter and physics far-from-equilibrium where the sample refresh rate is slow and shot number is limited. For example, states that replicate the tremendous pressures and temperatures of planetary bodies or the conditions inside nuclear fusion reactions. Using high-power lasers to pump these samples also has the advantage of being inherently synchronised to the laser-driven X-ray probe. A perspective on the additional strengths of a laboratory-based ultrafast X-ray absorption source is presented.

Abstract:

We report on experiments where solid-density Mg plasmas are created by heating with the focused output of the Linac Coherent Light Source x-ray free-electron laser. We study the K-shell emission from the helium- and lithium-like ions using Bragg crystal spectroscopy. Observation of the dielectronic satellites in lithium-like ions confirms that the M-shell electrons appear bound for these high charge states. An analysis of the intensity of these satellites indicates that when modeled with an atomic-kinetics code, the ionization potential depression model employed needs to produce depressions for these ions which lie between those predicted by the well known Stewart-Pyatt and Ecker-Kroll models. These results are largely consistent with recent density functional theory calculations.