- Phenomenology of nonlinear QED in strong fields
- Approximation frameworks for nonlinear QED effects
- Numerical calculation of nonlinear QED spectra
- New physics in intense electromagnetic fields
When electromagnetic fields become very strong, calculations become challenging because the standard method of using perturbation theory can no longer be used and other methods must be employed. However, it also means that new and interesting phenomena can emerge, such as light-by-light scattering, which is forbidden classically. It is also thought that studying strong-field processes can help solve difficult outstanding problems in QCD (Quantum Chromodynamics) and Cosmology. The next generation of forthcoming laser facilities and proposed experiments colliding conventionally accelerated electron beams with intense laser pulses should finally be able to probe nonlinear QED processes in strong fields.
Research Grants
2024-2027 PI: Leverhulme Standard Grant, Grant No: RPG-2024-142 £200,000
2024-2026 PI: Leverhulme Standard Grant, Grant No: RPG-2023-285 £125,000
2018-2020 Joint-PI: EPSRC Standard Grant, Grant No: EP/S010319/1 £450,000
2016-2018 PI: EPSRC First Grant Scheme, Grant No: EP/P005217/1 £125,000
2016 PI: Royal Society International Exchange Scheme 2015/R £2,000
Awards
2021-2022 Guest Research Fellowship of Quantum Universe Excellence Cluster at University of Hamburg and DESY
2017
Editor-in-Chief Choice Award 2016 (with
Dr Tom Heinzl) for High Power Laser Science and Engineering 4, e5 (2016)
2013 Excellence in Peer Review, Annals of Physics
2011 Otto Hahn Medal of the Max Planck Society
2010 Best presentation, GRC Multiphoton Processes
I am a member of the Plymouth
Centre for Mathematical Sciences
Since 2015:
55) 02/12/2024 "Strong-field QED Overview", SFQED24, DESY, Hamburg, Germany
54) 18/12/2023 "Towards measuring vacuum polarisation at HIBEF at HED instrument of the EU.XFEL", UK High Power Laser Christmas Meeting, Abingdon, UK
53) 26/09/2023 "HIBEF Theory: Crossed Beams, Shadows and Focussing", Helmholtz Institute Jena, Germany
52) 08/09/2023 "Theory at LUXE", LUXE collaboration meeting (open session), Weizmann Institute, Israel
51) 04/09/2023 "Nonlinear vacuum birefringence", LUXE collaboration meeting (closed session), Weizmann Institute, Israel
50) 04/09/2023 "Theory Overview and Refresher", LUXE collaboration meeting (closed session), Weizmann Institute, Israel
48) 12/09/2022 "Nonlinear vacuum birefringence and photon-polarised nonlinear Breit-Wheeler", LUXE collaboration meeting (online)
47) 12/09/2022 "LUXE Theory WP summary", LUXE collaboration meeting (online)
43) 28/03/2022 "LUXE executive summary and science case", DESY Physics Review Committee
42) 25/01/2022 "LUXE executive summary", LUXE meeting (online)
41) 14/01/2022 "Nonlinear Breit-Wheeler Pair Creation in Laser pulses", QED theory group seminar, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Germany (online)
40) 15/11/2021 "LUXE QED Theory Overview", LUXE Workshop (online)
39) 13/09/2021 "Higher fidelity benchmarking of the nonlinear Compton and Breit-Wheeler processes in a laser pulse", ExHILP 2021, Jena (online)
38) 22/07/2021 "Pulse Envelope Interference Effects in the Nonlinear Compton and Breit-Wheeler Processes", LPHYS'21 (online)
37) 27/04/2021 "Strong-field QED at LUXE", DESY Physics Review Committee
36) 08/02/2021 "Strong-Field QED aims at the LUXE experiment", UK High Power Laser Christmas Meeting (online)
35) 19/01/2021 "The locally monochromatic approximation and the LUXE experiment", The Schwinger Effect and Strong-Field Physics Workshop, YITP, Kyoto Japan (online)
34) 06/11/2020 "High Intensity QED and LUXE", Classical and Quantum Physics in Extreme Light Fields, international seminar dedicated to Nikolay Narozhny’s 80th birthday, Moscow (online)
33) 04/11/2020 "Laser polarisation and the Breit-Wheeler process", LUXE meeting
32) 13/05/2020 "From QED to rates @ LUXE", LUXE Workshop 2020
31) 03/09/2019 "Improved approximations for nonlinear Breit-Wheeler and nonlinear Compton scattering at intermediate intensities", ExHILP 2019, Stanford, US
30) 16/07/2019 "The High Intensity Frontier of QED", Graduate School CAEP, Beijing, China
29) 11/07/2019 "Decay of Massive Axion-Like-Particles in Quasi-Static Backgrounds", LPHYS' 19, Gyeongju, South Korea
28) 30/04/2019 "Vacuum birefringence with x-rays", Vacuum Fluctuations at Nanoscale and Gravitation: theory and experiments, Sardinia, Italy
27) 16/04/2019 "Massive pseudoscalar production at LUXE", DESY, Germany
26) 09/04/2019 "Locally Constant Field Approximation for High-Intensity QED", HI-Jena, Jena, Germany
25) 22/08/2018 "Massive scalar and pseudoscalar production in electron-laser collisions", SQED Workshop, DESY, Germany
24) 17/07/2018 "Photon-photon scattering in the collision of three laser pulses" LPHYS '18, Nottingham, UK
23) 17/07/2018 "Trident process in a constant crossed field" LPHYS '18, Nottingham, UK
22) 09/07/2018 "QED Overview (HIBEF Workshop)" HZDR, Dresden, Germany
21) 11/04/2018 "Measuring vacuum polarisation using high power lasers" HPLSE2018, Suzhou, China
20) 29/11/2017 "Laser-based QED in intense backgrounds: ethos and recent developments" Imperial College London, UK
19) 08/09/2017 "Vacuum birefringence in high-energy laser-electron collisions", ExHILP 2017, Lisbon, Portugal
18) 15/07/2017 "The Intensity Frontier and High Power Lasers", NUDT, Changsha, China
17) 12/07/2017 "The Intensity Frontier and High Power Lasers", SIOM, Shanghai, China
16) 10/07/2017 "Strong-field QED in Intense lasers (3 lectures)", NUDT, HEDP Summer School, Changsha, China
15) 20/04/2017 "Vacuum birefringence in high-energy laser-electron collisions", LNPC '17, Yokohama, Japan
14) 21/12/2016 "Vacuum birefringence in high-energy laser-electron collisions", UK High Power Laser Christmas Meeting, Abingdon, UK
13) 16/11/2016
"Strong-Field QED in High-Power Lasers", Helmholtz Institute, Jena, Germany
12) 13/07/2016 "Beyond Volkov: Solving the Second-Order Klein-Gordon Equation", LPHYS' 16, Yerevan, Armenia
11) 30/05/2016 "Strong laser particle physics", CARDC (Chinese Aerodynamic Research and Development Center), Mianyang, China
10) 16/12/2015 "Shock wave and high harmonic generationin the vacuum plasma", UK High Power Laser Christmas Meeting, Abingdon, UK
9) 25/11/2015 "Laser-based strong-field QED (under construction)", Plasma Seminar, Imperial College London, UK
8) 14/09/2015 "High intensity lasers & strong-field QED", Oxcheds seminar, AWE, UK
7) 24/08/2015 "Vacuum high-harmonic generation in the shock regime and photon-photon scattering dynamics", LPHYS' 15, Shanghai, China
6) 17/08/2015 "High intensity lasers & strong-field QED", CAEP, Mianyang, China
5) 22/07/2015 "Vacuum high harmonic generation in the shock regime", EXHILP 15, Heidelberg, Germany
4) 08/05/2015 "What's so anomalous about anomalous x-ray pulsars?", Plymouth Astronomical Society, Plymouth
3) 27/04/2015 "Strong-field QED & high intensity lasers", Atomic and Laser Physics Seminar, University of Oxford, UK
2) 22/04/2015 "Vacuum high harmonic generation in the shock regime", Theoretical Physics Seminar, Plymouth University, UK
1) 15/04/2015 "Vacuum high harmonic generation in the shock regime", Chalmers, Gothenburg, Sweden