International Meeting on Laser-Driven Radiation Sources for Nuclear Applications

Recent advances in laser technology create new opportunities for nuclear physics research and applications. The light at extreme power densities and ultra-short pulse duration induces highly nonlinear electromagnetic effects that result in previously unthinkable electron acceleration gradients of 100s GeV/m and higher.  Petawatt-scale peak powers reached by tabletop-size lasers open possibilities for compact sources of radiation that can be used in nuclear science and applications. 

The meeting will also include an overview of operations and research programs with Thompson sources of mono-chromatic photons used for nuclear studies with current and future facilities. 

Further development in the field requires inter-disciplinary collaboration of the experts in laser-induced acceleration techniques and nuclear scientists. Invited speakers will review the current status and identify new directions in the area of laser-driven sources of radiation energetic enough to be an efficient probe of physics processes at nuclear scales. The examples of the phenomena of interest are radiography with hard X-rays, nuclear photo-activation, nuclear photo-fission, Compton scattering, electron-positron pair production, and neutron generation.  The main objective of this meeting is to identify breakthrough areas in nuclear science and applications due to newly emerging laser-driven particle sources.

Meeting Topics:

• Laser wakefield acceleration and plasma wakefield acceleration
• Thomson X-ray sources for nuclear studies
• High-gradient particle acceleration
• Nuclear applications of particle accelerators
• Computer modeling and simulation tools

Meeting sponsored by GWU and the U.S. Army Research Office