Extreme Light: A New Paradigm for Fundamental Physics

The laser just turned fifty.  Today, it can produce the highest peak power measured in Petawatts or 1000 times the world’s grid power. It delivers this gargantuan power in extremely short duration counted in femtosecond. This power can be focused over a small fraction of a hair size to produce the highest intensity, the highest pressure, the highest electric field, the highest acceleration, and the highest temperature. It can also produce high-energy particles and radiations. However in its first fifty year it was mainly limited to the study of the atomic structure. The extreme characteristics that are provided by today’s extreme light laser offer a new paradigm to Fundamental Physics for the investigation of the deeper strata of matter, as the nucleus, the nucleon and the vacuum.

This event is part of the Franco-Scottish Science Seminar Series, jointly-funded by the ‎RSE and the French Embassy, London.‎

Speaker: Professor Gerard Mourou, Institut de Lumiere Extreme, ENSTA.

Tickets are free, registration required.

Please contact the RSE events team at: events@royalsoced.org.uk or call 0131 240 2780.

Alternatively, register online at: www.royalsoced.org.uk