Laser-plasma accelerator group

Abstract:

Multijet production rates in neutral current deep inelastic scattering have been measured in the range of exchanged boson virtualities 10 < Q ² < 5000 GeV². The data were taken at the ep collider HERA with centre-of-mass energy √s = 318 GeV using the ZEUS detector and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 82.2pb^-1. Jets were identified in the Breit frame using the kT cluster algorithm in the longitudinally invariant inclusive mode. Measurements of differential dijet and trijet cross sections are presented as functions of jet transverse energy (ET,B^jet), pseudorapidity (ηLAB ^jet) and Q² with ET,B^jet > 5 GeV and -1 < ηLAB^jet < 2.5. Next-to-leading-order QCD calculations describe the data well. The value of the strong coupling constant αs(MZ), determined from the ratio of the trijet to dijet cross sections, is αs(MZ) = 0.1179 ± 0.0013 (stat.)-0.0046^-0.0028 (exp.) -0.0046^+0.0064 (th.). © Springer-Verlag / Società Italiana di Fisica 2005.

Abstract:

A molecular dynamic (MD) code is used to compare the rates of heating by inverse Bremsstrahlung (IB) for circularly and linearly polarized radiation. For low intensities the heating rate is found to be independent of polarization. However, at higher intensities the variation of the heating rate with the radiation intensity is found to exhibit a sharper peak for circularly polarized than linearly polarized radiation. This difference is explained in terms of differences in the variation of the electron quiver speed during the optical cycle for linearly and circularly polarized radiation. An analytical expression--which includes a term which is nonlinear in the density of the plasma--for the rate of IB heating is fitted to the rates calculated by the MD code.

Abstract:

We give on overview of recent advances in collisionally pumped optical field-ionization soft X-ray lasers developed at LOA. Saturated amplification has been achieved on the 5d-5p transition in Xe8+ at 41.8 nm, and on the 4d-4p transition in Kr8+ at 32.8 nm. We demonstrate a significant increase of the energy output from the Xe8+ laser driven within two types of wave-guide. Finally, we present results of a pioneering work aimed to set up and characterize the first true soft X-ray laser chain.

Abstract:

The ZEUS inclusive differential cross-section data from HERA, for charged and neutral current processes taken with e + and e - beams, together with differential cross-section data on inclusive jet production in e + p scattering and dijet production in γp scattering, have been used in a new NLO QCD analysis to extract the parton distribution functions of the proton. The input of jet-production data constrains the gluon and allows an accurate extraction of alpha s(MZ) at NLO; alphas = 0.1183±0.0028(exp.)±0.0008(model). An additional uncertainty from the choice of scales is estimated as ±0.005. This is the first extraction of alphas(MZ) from HERA data alone. © Springer-Verlag/Società Italiana de Fisica 2005.