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Turbulent radiation flow is commonplace in systems with strong, incoherent, light-matter interactions. In astrophysical contexts, photon bubble turbulence is considered a key mechanism behind enhanced radiation transport, and its importance has been widely asserted for a variety of high energy objects such as accretion disks and massive stars. Here, we show that analogous conditions to those of dense astrophysical objects can be obtained in large clouds of cold atoms, prepared in a laser-cooling experiment, driven close to a sharp electronic resonance. By accessing the spatially-resolved atom density, we are able to identify a photon bubble instability and the resulting regime of photon bubble turbulence. We also develop a theoretical model describing the coupled dynamics of both photon and atom gases, which accurately describes the statistical properties of the turbulent regime. This study thus opens the possibility of simulating radiation-dominated astrophysical systems in cold atom experiments. Photon bubble turbulence is an astrophysical phenomenon involving radiation transport. Here, the authors report analogous behavior in ultracold gas by observing signatures of photon bubble instabilities in Rb atoms trapped in a MOT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reflection of an electron beam by an intense laser pulse is considered. This is the so-called photon mirror configuration for laser acceleration in vacuum, where the energy of the incident electron beam is nearly double-Doppler shifted due to reflection on the laser pulse front. A wave-electron optical description for electron reflection and resonant backscattering, due to both linear electric field force and quadratic ponderomotive force, is provided beyond the paraxial approximation. This is done by assuming that the single electron of the beam is spin-less and therefore its motion can be described by a quantum scalar field whose spatiotemporal evolution is governed by the Klein-Gordon equation (Klein-Gordon field). Our present model, not only confirms the classical results but also shows the occurrence of purely quantum effects, such as partial reflection of the incident electron beam and enhanced backscattering due to Bragg resonance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article proposes a mechanism, linked with laser cooling process, that can result to the formation of static and oscillating photon bubbles inside the laser cooled gas. It demonstrates that static and oscillating photon bubbles can be excited using diffused light in the laser cooled matter confined in a magneto-optical trap. The stability of low frequency perturbations in the photon intensity and atom number density in the laser cooled gas is also described.

We review the concept of photon effective charge in a plasma, and extend it to the case of longitudinal photons or plasmons. A simple electrostatic fluid model is considered in a non-magnetized and non-relativistic plasma. The contribution of the ions to the plasmon charge is also considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonlinear wave-driven processes in plasmas are normally described by either a monochromatic pump wave that couples to other monochromatic waves or as a random phase wave coupling to other random phase waves. An alternative approach involves a random or broadband pump coupling to monochromatic and/or coherent structures in the plasma. This approach can be implemented through the wave kinetic model. In this model, the incoming pump wave is described by either a bunch (for coherent waves) or a sea (for random phase waves) of quasiparticles. This approach has been applied to both photon acceleration in laser wakefields and drift wave turbulence in magnetized plasma edge configurations. Numerical simulations have been compared to experiments, varying from photon acceleration to drift mode-zonal flow turbulence, and good qualitative correspondences have been found in all cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses photon kinetic theory, which is a description of the electromagnetic field in terms of classical particles in coordinate and wave number phase space. Photon kinetic theory is applied to the interaction of laser pulses with underdense plasma and the transfer of energy and momentum between the laser pulse and the plasma is described in photon kinetic terms. A comparison is made between a one-dimensional full wave and a photon kinetic code for the same laser and plasma parameters. This shows that the photon kinetic simulations accurately reproduce the pulse envelope evolution for photon frequencies down to the plasma frequency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photon acceleration is the phenomenon whereby a light wave changes color when propagating through a medium whose index of refraction changes in time. This concept can be used to describe the spectral changes experienced by electromagnetic waves when they propagate in spatially and temporally varying plasmas. In this paper the detection of a large-amplitude laser-driven wake field is reported for the first time, demonstrating photon acceleration. Several features characteristic of photon acceleration in wake fields, such as splitting of the main spectral peak and asymmetries between the blueshift and redshift for large shifts, have been observed. The experiment is modeled using both a novel photon-kinetic code and a three-dimensional particle-in-cell code. In addition to the wide-ranging applications in the field of compact particle accelerators, the concept of wave kinetics can be applied to understanding phenomena in nonlinear optics, space physics, and fusion energy research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A correction to the article "Evidence of Photon Acceleration by Laser Wake Fields" that was published in the July 11, 2006 online issue is presented.