2014/04/15 by Andrei Gruzinov, Gruzinov, Andrei
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Geophysics and Sensor Technology #High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE) #astro-ph.HE
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1404.4615
2 pages
arxiv created 2014/04/15 · openalex publication_date 2014/04/15 · arxiv updated 2014/04/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The mechanism by which gamma-ray pulsars shine might be reproducible in a laboratory. This claim is supported by three observations: (i) properly focusing a few PW optical laser gives an electromagnetic field in the so-called Aristotelian regime, when a test electron is radiation-overdamped; (ii) the Goldreich-Julian number density of this electromagnetic field (the number density of elementary charges needed for a nearly full conversion of optical power into gamma-rays) is of order the electron number density in a solid; (iii) above about 50PW, the external source of electrons is not needed -- charges will be created by a pair production avalanche.