Upcoming events

Over the last decade, several exciting directions have been initiated by laser-driven plasmas, e.g., compact particle accelerators, inertial fusion and laboratory astrophysics. The first has known rapid progress, in terms of current, energy, stability; fusion has gone through a historic step, with the news of ignition being achieved at NIF in 2022; and laboratory astrophysics has known also spectacular developments, demonstrating the possibility to perform fully scalable experiments relevant to various objects such as forming stars and supernovae. A particularly interesting aspect is that all these fields are strongly synergistic, i.e., that advances in one can push the others as well. I will present examples of such synergies, through recent results we have obtained in all these domains, and in particular how ultra-bright neutron beams can be developed using latest generation multi-PW lasers [1,2]. These could open interesting perspectives in terms of cargo inspection, but also for fusion plasma measurements. I will also show how fusion can benefit from external magnetization [3]. Finally, I will discuss advances in laboratory astrophysics, particularly the first-stage acceleration of ions leading to cosmic rays [4,5], understanding the universal nature of collimated outflows in the Universe [6], and probing the intricacy of 3D magnetic reconnection [7] [1] High-flux neutron generation by laser-accelerated ions from single-and double-layer targets, V Horný et al., Scientific Reports 12 (1), 19767, 2022 [2] Numerical investigation of spallation neutrons generated from petawatt-scale laser-driven proton beams, B Martinez et al., Matter and Radiation at Extremes 7 (2), 024401, 2022 [3] Dynamics of nanosecond laser pulse propagation and of associated instabilities in a magnetized underdense plasma, W. Yao et al., https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2211.06036 [4] Laboratory evidence for proton energization by collisionless shock surfing, W Yao et al., Nature Physics 17 (10), 1177-1182, 2021 [5] Enhancement of the Nonresonant Streaming Instability by Particle Collisions, A Marret et al., Physical Review Letters 128 (11), 115101, 2022 [6] Laboratory disruption of scaled astrophysical outflows by a misaligned magnetic field, G Revet et al., Nature communications 12 (1), 762, 2021 [7] Laboratory evidence of magnetic reconnection hampered in obliquely interacting flux tubes, S Bolaños et al., Nature Communications 13 (1), 6426, 2022