One of the postulates of quantum physics says that matter can only arise with the help of light (photons). In fact, verifying this would require a huge amount of energy and has never been tested in a laboratory. A group of scientists from the USA and Japan have found conditions under which such an experiment would be possible using modern lasers.

It should be said that indirect synthesis of matter from light energy has been implemented in the laboratory several times in the last two to three years. Scientists accelerated gold and other heavy metal ions to relativistic velocities. At such a speed, the ions were surrounded by clouds of photons, which led to collisions between photons during the convergence of metal ions. These collisions produced particles and antiparticles (usually electrons and positrons). In other words, photon-photon interactions produced matter that was perfectly recorded by scientific instruments.

Repeating a similar experiment only with laser beams (reproducing a pure experiment on the transformation of energy into matter) means ascending to another level of science. A group of researchers from Osaka University and the University of California at San Diego explained how to do this. They used simulations to show how matter could be produced experimentally from light alone; This could help test long-standing theories about the evolution of the universe in the future.

“Our simulations show that a dense plasma can self-organize and form a photon-photon collider when interacting with the intense electromagnetic fields of a laser. – Dr. lead author of the study previously published in the journal. Explained Sugimoto (Sugimoto) Physical Examination Letters. “This collider contains a dense population of gamma rays, which are ten times denser than the density of electrons in plasma and whose energy is a million times greater than the energy of photons in a laser.”

When a photon collides with another photon in the collider, electron-positron pairs are formed, and the positrons are accelerated by the plasma electric field created by the laser. The result is a positron beam.

“This is the first simulation of positron acceleration in the framework of the linear Breit-Wheeler process under relativistic conditions, – said Professor Arefiev, co-author of the study. “We believe our proposal has been implemented experimentally and we look forward to implementing it in the real world.” Program director of the US National Science Foundation, which supported the study, Dr. Vyacheslav Lukin added: “This work demonstrates a potential way to explore the mysteries of the universe under laboratory conditions. The future possibilities of today’s and tomorrow’s powerful laser installations become even more intriguing.”

The essence of the process is that the plasma irradiated by lasers, which today exists in a state close to the critical state, can self-organize and create not only positrons (and electrons), but also accelerate them to ultrarelativistic energies. The laser pulse collects electrons at its leading edge, creating a strong longitudinal plasma electric field. The field creates a moving gamma collider (a type of wave front in which gamma quanta collide) that produces positrons using the linear Breit-Wheeler process (the annihilation of two gamma quanta into an electron-positron pair). At the same time, the accelerator for positrons is a plasma field, not a laser, as seen in the picture above.

The discovery of positron acceleration promises the possibility of creating a facility for converting pure energy into matter for the first time. For this, it is sufficient to use existing lasers at intensity 10.²² w/cm². Simulations showed that the positron beam would achieve gigaelectron-volt energy at a deflection angle of approximately 10° with a charge of 0.1 pC (10⁶ electrons in momentum). Things that were once considered fantasies will become reality, but not like in the movies. It’s unlikely that the replicators will survive this. But confirmation of the Standard Model and possibly new physics is a valuable reward for the discovery.