Plasma acceleration and new acceleration techniques constitute a research area focused on generating high-gradient particle acceleration using collective electromagnetic fields in plasmas and other nonconventional media, surpassing the gradient limits of radio-frequency cavity accelerators. This includes plasma wakefield acceleration driven by intense laser pulses or charged particle beams, beam-driven and laser-driven dielectric structures, and novel concepts such as structure-based wakefields and micro-accelerators. Research emphasizes understanding nonlinear plasma dynamics, beam loading, stability, staging, and emittance preservation, as well as developing advanced diagnostics and control schemes, with applications in compact high-energy accelerators, ultrafast radiation sources, and future collider concepts.
When a high-intensity laser interacts with plasma, the charged particles typically oscillate back and forth like waves on the ocean. But what if the laser itself could twist like a whirlpool? Researchers have now demonstrated ...
Optics & Photonics
23 hours ago
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55
Electrons around Jupiter have been caught in the process of being accelerated, revealing a potentially unified mechanism for particle acceleration. The findings, published in Nature, may help constrain how energetic particles ...
Astronomy
Jun 4, 2026
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102
You're on the fourth human mission to Mars, and you're told the Odyssey spacecraft designed to take you there will be the smoothest ride you'll ever take. It features a newly christened electric propulsion engine which was ...
Space Exploration
May 1, 2026
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Particle accelerators such as those at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva are typically highly complex large-scale devices. In these ring-shaped facilities, which are often several kilometers ...
Plasma Physics
Apr 30, 2026
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87
A technology that could propel crewed missions to Mars and robotic spacecraft throughout the solar system was recently put to the test at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. On Feb. 24, for the first ...
Space Exploration
Apr 28, 2026
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158
The Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) has detected PeV (1015 eV) gamma-ray emission from a pulsar wind nebula powered by PSR J1849-0001 in the constellation Aquila, marking the discovery of a new PeVatron ...
Astronomy
Apr 24, 2026
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46
Plasma, the fourth state of matter, consists of a gas in which electrons are no longer bound to atoms, which allows electricity to flow freely. When beams of particles moving close to the speed of light travel through plasma, ...
For the first time, researchers have demonstrated that a laser-plasma accelerator can reliably drive a free-electron laser for more than eight hours. Published in Physical Review Accelerators and Beams, the result was achieved ...
Using high-intensity lasers, researchers have taken an important step toward miniaturization of particle accelerators by demonstrating free-electron laser amplification at extreme ultraviolet wavelengths (27–50 nm), with ...
Optics & Photonics
Apr 1, 2026
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83
Harnessing the power of the sun holds the promise of providing future societies with energy abundance. To make this a reality, fusion researchers need to address many technological challenges. For example, fusion reactions ...
General Physics
Feb 13, 2026
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