Staff
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Mitsuo Nakai (Professor), Youichi Sakawa (Associate professor), |
Research areas
Collisionles shock, Magnetic reconnection, Plasma-jet collimation, Plasma instabilities, Particle acceleration using short-pulse high-power lasers, Relativistic magnetic field generation, Electron-positron pair production, Nuclear synthesis and excitation by bright gamma-ray flush, Experimental study on interior of Earth and Planets, and meteorite impacts with high-power laser, etc
Research themes
1. Astrophysical (Collisionless) shock and particle
acceleration (Cosmic Ray acceleration):
At shock waves such as in Supernova Remnants, Active Galactic
Nucleus, and Solar Fares, charged particles are accelerated up
to the relativistic energy, and it is believed that these are
sources of Cosmic Rays. We generate collisionless shock in
laboratory using high-energy laser systems in the world, and
study micro- and macro-structures of collisionless shock,
physics of particle acceleration, magnetic field
generation/amplification at shock, etc.
2. Experimental study on interior of Earth and Planets, and
meteorite impacts with high-power laser:
High power laser can create ultrahigh pressure relevant to
interior of Earth and planets, and ultrahigh-velocity
conditions relevant to meteorite impacts. We have been trying
to reveal the origin and evolution of Earth and planets with
sophisticated diagnostics on these extreme conditions.
3. Nuclear science frontier cultivated by ultra-high intense
lasers:
Extreme high energy density plasma provides a new experimental
field for the nuclear science. We explore the nuclear
synthesis under the astrophysical conditions by mimicking the
hard radiation environment and high temperature plasma by
utilizing ultra-high intense lasers.
4. We also study experimental research on Magnetic reconnection, Plasma-jet collimation, Hydro-dynamic instabilities such as Richtmyer-Meshkov and Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities, Particle acceleration using high-power lasers, Relativistic magnetic field generation, Electron-positron pair generation, etc.