Effects of Landau quantization on the equations of state in intense laser plasma interactions with strong magnetic fields

Recently, magnetic fields of 0.7 (±0.1) gigaGauss (GG) have been observed in the laboratory in laser plasma interactions. From scaling arguments, it appears that a few gigaGauss magnetic fields may be within reach of existing petawatt lasers. In this paper, the equations of state (EOS) are calculated in the presence of these very large magnetic fields. The appropriate domain for electron degeneracy and for Landau quantization is calculated for the density-temperature domain relevant to laser plasma interactions. The conditions for a strong Landau quantization, for a magnetic field in the domain of 1-10 GG, are obtained. The role of this paper is to formulate the EOS in terms of those that can potentially be realized in laboratory plasmas. By doing so, it is intended to alert the experimental laser-plasma physics community to the potential of realizing Landau quantization in the laboratory for the first time since the theory was first formulated. © 2005 American Institute of Physics.