Laser-plasma accelerator group

Abstract:

Slow pulsed capillary discharges in round capillaries are currently under investigation for use as plasma channel laser waveguides in laser-wakefield acceleration, x-ray lasers, and higher-harmonic generation. In this study, a capillary discharge with a square cross section is presented. The electron density, which determines the laser guiding properties, can be measured by means of transverse interferometry in this device. Using a numerical model of the plasma and the capillary wall, an analysis of the discharge is made. The results predict that the square channel is capable of guiding circular laser pulses. The guiding properties are quite similar to those of a round channel with nearly the same diameter as the channel width. This suggests the results obtained by measuring the square capillary discharge are applicable for round channels as well. It was found that the wall heating was inhomogeneous, which makes the wall more susceptible to ablation. The heating of the wall changes the transverse optical pathlength in the interferometry experiments. © 2007 American Institute of Physics.

Abstract:

Inclusive-jet and dijet differential cross sections have been measured in neutral current deep inelastic ep scattering for exchanged boson virtualities Q2 > 125   GeV2 with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 82 pb-1. Jets were identified in the Breit frame using the kT cluster algorithm. Jet cross sections are presented as functions of several kinematic and jet variables. The results are also presented in different regions of Q2. Next-to-leading-order QCD calculations describe the measurements well. Regions of phase space where the theoretical uncertainties are small have been identified. Measurements in these regions have the potential to constrain the gluon density in the proton when used as inputs to global fits of the proton parton distribution functions. © 2006.