DOE OSTI · 3022747
Observation of quantum effects on radiation reaction in strong fields
Abstract
Radiation reaction, the force experienced by an accelerated charge due to radiation emission, has long been the subject of extensive theoretical and experimental research. Experimental verification of a quantum, strong-field description of radiation reaction is fundamentally important, and has wide-ranging implications for astrophysics, laser-driven particle acceleration, next-generation particle colliders and inverse-Compton photon sources for medical and industrial applications. However, the difficulty of accessing regimes where strong field and quantum effects dominate inhibited previous efforts to observe quantum radiation reaction in charged particle dynamics with high significance. We report the first high significance (> 5σ) observation of strong-field radiation reaction on electron spectra where quantum effects are substantial. We obtain the first, quantitative, strong evidence favouring the quantum-continuous and quantum-stochastic models over the classical model; the quantum models perform comparably. The lower electron energy losses predicted by the quantum models accounts for their improved performance. Model comparison was performed using a novel Bayesian framework which has widespread utility for laser-particle collision experiments, including those utilising conventional accelerators, where some collision parameters cannot be measured directly.
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Los, Eva E. [Imperial College London (United Kingdom)] (ORCID:0000000255450346), Gerstmayr, Elias [Imperial College London (United Kingdom); Queen’s University Belfast (United Kingdom); SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000311648593), Arran, Christopher [University of York (United Kingdom)] (ORCID:0000000286448118), Streeter, Matthew J. V. [Queen’s University Belfast (United Kingdom)] (ORCID:0000000190869831), Colgan, Cary [Imperial College London (United Kingdom); Tokamak Energy Ltd, Milton (United Kingdom)] (ORCID:0000000162272317), Cobo, Claudia C. [Imperial College London (United Kingdom); University of York (United Kingdom)], Kettle, Brendan [Imperial College London (United Kingdom)] (ORCID:0000000344244448), Blackburn, Thomas G. [University of Gothenburg (Sweden)] (ORCID:000000023681356X), Bourgeois, Nicolas [STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot (United Kingdom)], Calvin, Luke [Queen’s University Belfast (United Kingdom)], Cardarelli, Jason [University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)], Cavanagh, Niall [Queen’s University Belfast (United Kingdom)], Dann, Stephen J. D. [STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot (United Kingdom)] (ORCID:000000026875631X), Di Piazza, Antonino [University of Rochester, NY (United States); Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, Heidelberg (Germany)] (ORCID:0000000310180458), Fitzgarrald, Rebecca [University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)] (ORCID:0000000316338113), Ilderton, Anton [University of Edinburgh (United Kingdom)], Keitel, Christoph H. [Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, Heidelberg (Germany)] (ORCID:0000000219841470), Marklund, Mattias [University of Gothenburg (Sweden); Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, SE (Sweden)], McKenna, Paul [University of Strathclyde, Glasgow (United Kingdom)] (ORCID:0000000180617091), Murphy, Christopher D. [University of York (United Kingdom)] (ORCID:0000000338493229), Najmudin, Zulfikar [Imperial College London (United Kingdom)] (ORCID:0000000163234005), Parsons, Peter [Queen’s University Belfast (United Kingdom); STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot (United Kingdom)], Rajeev, Paramel Pattathil [STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot (United Kingdom)] (ORCID:0000000273750000), Symes, Daniel R. [STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot (United Kingdom)], Tamburini, Matteo [Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, Heidelberg (Germany)] (ORCID:0000000228979826), Thomas, Alexander G. R. [University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)] (ORCID:0000000332068512), Wood, Jonathan C. [Imperial College London (United Kingdom); Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg (Germany)] (ORCID:0000000344137044), Zepf, Matthew [Friedrich Schiller Universität Jena (Germany); Helmholtz Institute Jena (Germany); GSi GmbH, Darmstadt (Germany)], Sarri, Gianluca [Queen’s University Belfast (United Kingdom)] (ORCID:000000031800343X), Ridgers, Christopher P. [University of York (United Kingdom)], Mangles, Stuart P. D. [Imperial College London (United Kingdom)] (ORCID:0000000324434201). 2026-01-13. Observation of quantum effects on radiation reaction in strong fields. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-67918-8
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