Travelling waves and light-front approach in relativistic electrodynamics

Abstract:

We briefly report on a recent proposal (Fiore in J Phys A Math Theor 51:085203, 2018) for simplifying the equations of motion of charged particles in an electromagnetic field Fμν that is the sum of a plane travelling wave Ftμν(ct-z) and a static part Fsμν(x,y,z); it adopts the light-like coordinate ξ=ct-z instead of time t as an independent variable. We illustrate it in a few cases of extreme acceleration, first of an isolated particle, then of electrons in a plasma in plane hydrodynamic conditions: the Lorentz–Maxwell and continuity PDEs can be simplified or sometimes even completely reduced to a family of decoupled systems of ordinary ones; this occurs e.g. with the impact of the travelling wave on a vacuum-plasma interface (what may produce plasma waves or the slingshot effect).

Año de publicación:

2019

Keywords:

• Nonlinear PDEs
• Laser-driven acceleration
• Laser-plasma interactions

Fuente:

scopus