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Published March 2022 | Published
Journal Article Open

Wakefield Acceleration in the Universe

Abstract

The important role of magnetic fields in the phenomena in and evolution of the Universe is well appreciated. A salient example of this is to make (often episodic) large magnetic fields in AGN accretion disks and their emanation of well-collimated and longitudinally extended astrophysical jets. Such typical cases or related astrophysical processes, we find, provide a fertile ground for exciting large-amplitude oscillations in the magnetic fields that constitute the spine of the jets. The energy sources of these oscillations can be traced originally to the gravitational energy of the central object. During their long propagation along the jet, because of the gradual changes of the density and magnetic fields, these large magnetic pulsations turn into relativistic amplitude electromagnetic (EM) pulses, which in turn induce intense wakefields that are capable of acceleration of electrons, positrons, and ions to high energies. In this review, we survey a variety of astrophysical objects ranging from as large as the cosmic AGN accretion disks and their jets to as small as microquasars, to find or predict that there exist common astrophysical processes of emission of high-energy particles and gamma (and other EM) emissions. A variety of these objects will be ideally observed and studied in the multimessenger astrophysical observations. One example that already stuck out was the case of the simultaneous observations of gravitational wave emission and gamma-ray pulse from the collision of the two neutron stars and their subsequent structure formation (such as a disk) around them.

Additional Information

© 2022 The Author(s). Open Access since April 2023. This is an Open Access article published by World Scientific Publishing Company. It is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 (CC BY-NC) License which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is used for non-commercial purposes. Three of us have followed our own paths of research to encounter with each other, which amounted to a joint work discussed in this review. TE and TT ran into cross-roads from where the late Professor Yoshiyuki Takahashi brought us together by his vision of very active and high-energy astrophysical phenomena such as collisions of compact stars and associated emissions of radiation, extremely high-energy cosmic rays and their possible origin, and pioneering detection concept of them by space-based observatory of EUSO in the early 2000s. TE joined EUSO projects, led by the Professors Yoshi Takahashi, Livio Scarsi, and Piergiorgio Picozza, and got interested in the acceleration of charged particles in the astrophysical jets. Stimulating discussions between TT and TE and other collaborators, such as Professor Etienne Parizot, gradually grew into the idea of wakefield acceleration in the Universe.TT and BB met during the preparation of SSCL (Superconducting Super ColliderLaboratory) to try to detect extremely high-energy phenomena. After the end ofSSCL, BB went on to utilize laser to detect never-observed Einstein's gravitational waves and their astrophysical implications, while TT continued to make realization of his earlier wakefield accelerators on Earth. BB and TT again met in the committee of ELI (Extreme Light Infrastructure) SAC (2008), which tried to realize high-intensity light phenomena including high-energy particle acceleration with laboratory lasers. These encounters and collaborations established a basis for three of us to investigate and review the nature's acceleration mechanism to extremely high energies, i.e. via wakefield acceleration. BB went on to successfully build LIGO and discovered gravitational waves, for which he was recognized for the 2017 Nobel Prize. BB wishes to thank the LIGO Laboratory for its support, the LIGO Scientific Collaboration for its contributions to LIGO data analysis and science, and lastly the National Science Foundation for its long-term support from LIGO conception to the present day. Along these meanderings and paths, we encountered a huge number of col-leagues whose enlightenment, collaborations, and encouragements were invaluable. They include: Drs. K. Abazajian, J. Adams, F. Albert, H. Alfven, R. Assmann, S. Barwick, F. Brunel, S. Bulanov, S. Cable, A. Caldwell, P. Chen, S. Corde, J.Dawson, M. Downer, E. Esarey, D. Gilden, C. Haswell, K. Holcomb, W. Horton, G.Huxtable, S. Ichimaru, S. Karsch, Y. Kato, Y. Kishimoto, M. Kivelson, M. Kole, R.Kulsrud, T. Kurki-Suonio, C. Lau, R. Li, J. Leboeuf, R. Lovelace, K. Makishima,R. Matsumoto, K. Mima, S. Mineshige, S. Miyamoto, A. Mizuta, G. Mourou, K.Nakajima, S. Nicks, E. Parizot, F. Perkins, N. Petviashvili, P. Picozza, M. Rosenbluth, N. Rostoker, J. I. Sakai, H. Sato, L. Scarsi, C. Schroeder, K. Shibata, V.Shiltsev, C. Siders, H. Sobel, D. Sugimoto, Y. Takahashi, K. Thorne, S. Weinberg, J. Wheeler, M. Yamada , X. Yan, H. Yu, F. Zimmermann, and E. Zweibel. The Rostoker Fund is also acknowledged for its support.

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Additional details

Created:
August 22, 2023
Modified:
October 23, 2023