I do quite a bit less work travel than I used to. But when asked to teach laser plasma physics in Montgenevre in the French Alps, I had to say “yes!” (nothing to do with the fact that I will get to ski while I’m there…)
Was one of the trips using it a visit to Blackett? I thought I saw you on level 10 (but I was teaching so couldn’t say hello)
What happens when a high‑energy electron beam collides with an ultra‑intense laser?
In this paper by Eva Los we show that the resulting photon emission and electron energy loss need a quantum description, beyond classical radiation reaction 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
⚡️ Quantum physics in action!
⚡️ Imperial physicists are among the first to report clear experimental evidence of quantum radiation reaction, revealing what happens when high‑energy electrons collide with ultra‑intense laser pulses.
Find out more🔗 www.imperial.ac.uk/news/article...
In this paper, Eva Los develops a Bayesian inference method to handle shot to shot fluctuations in laser wakefield accelerator experiments, paving the way for precision tests of strong-field QED in laser–electron collisions. doi.org/10.1017/hpl.... 🧪
🧪⚛️. This is self-defeating and objectively bad for the country and beyond. www.npr.org/2025/03/26/n...
I like my hybrid commute: cycle, tube, cycle, made possible because I have a folding bike. But I worry that if everyone in this tube carriage had a folding bike it would be very cramped! Am I doing the right thing? #commuting
One thing I love about my job is the variety! Today I went from safety leadership training to touring architects around our laser labs, into a meeting on grant finance systems, a deep dive on electron-plasma waves, and finally, planning upgrades to our student common room. Now I’m ready for a rest!
How so? Size or grandeur?
Laser-plasma accelerators have huge potential as compact sources of high-energy particles for a range of applications. In this paper by Charlotte Palmer from QUB they show that high repetition rate, stable acceleration is possible using a replenishable liquid sheet target
⚛️🧪 rdcu.be/d7peU
One thing I love about my job is the fantastic students I’m lucky enough to teach.The questions I get asked at the end of lectures can be brilliant!
The downside is that when a lecture finishes at 6pm and I need to get home, good questions make it hard to leave! 🧪⚛️
Can we do physics experiments using laser-plasma accelerators? We built a photon collider using a laser wakefield accelerator and a dense x-ray field to search for photon-photon scattering. We didn’t detect any but set a limit on the interaction strength.🧪⚛️
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Energetic particles in plasma can filament and generate magnetic fields.This is key to the magnetic fields that fill galaxies, and gamma-ray bursts from black hole mergers.
Nick Dover from the JAI@Imperial used lasers to image this process. Read the paper:
journals.aps.org/prl/abstract...
🧪⚛️
I got to visit the Royal School of Mines yesterday to teach Materials students in the faculty of engineering about fusion as part of their new Nuclear Fusion module.
It was nice to be back in the lecture theatre today to teach our 3rd and 4th year undergrads about plasma!
Hello, I a professor of laser-plasma physics at Imperial.
Please can you add me to the Science feed?
Here is my Google scholar page
scholar.google.co.uk/citations?us...
I’ve avoided almost all work so far to spend time with my family (the only thing I did was write a student reference that had a deadline of 28th December, thanks Oxford!).
I just ignore - my suspicion is that unsubscribing will just confirm I’m a real person worth targeting
The predatory journal folk are almost as good at avoiding junk email filters as fake conference folk!
A (mostly) relaxing day today: collected turkey, baked some bread, boiled and glazed a ham, played “it”in the park, did about 10 loads of washing up while my other half and the kids did some baking. Now we have a Xmas movie on!
If you know anyone interested in studying plasma physics and fusion then let them know about our new MSc course!
www.imperial.ac.uk/study/course...
Sorry I missed it this year!
If we make reference to our employer we should have a “view are my own” statement.
