Generating Megatesla Magnetic Fields on Earth Using Intense-Laser-Driven Microtube Implosions

Microtube Implosion

Illustration of a microtube implosion. Prior to irradiating with ultraintense laser pulses, a uniform external magnetic field is pre-seeded. Credit: M. Murakami

A team of researchers led by Osaka University discovers “microtube implosion,” a novel mechanism that demonstrates the generation of megatesla-order magnetic fields.

Magnetic fields are used in various areas of modern physics and engineering, with practical applications ranging from doorbells to maglev trains. Since Nikola Tesla’s discoveries in the 19th century, researchers have strived to realize strong magnetic fields in laboratories for fundamental studies and diverse applications, but the magnetic strength of familiar examples are relatively weak. Geomagnetism is 0.3−0.5 gauss (G) and magnetic tomography (MRI) used in hospitals is about 1 tesla (T = 104 G). By contrast, future magnetic fusion and maglev trains will require magnetic fields on the kilotesla (kT = 107 G) order. To date, the highest magnetic fields experimentally observed are on the kT order.

Recently, scientists at Osaka University discovered a novel mechanism called a “microtube implosion,” and demonstrated the generation of megatesla (MT = 1010G) order magnetic fields via particle simulations using a supercomputer. Astonishingly, this is three orders of magnitude higher than what has ever been achieved in a laboratory. Such high magnetic fields are expected only in celestial bodies like neutron stars and black holes.

Principle of Microtube Implosion

(Left) Top view of plasma dynamics in the microtube. Laser-produced hot electrons drive the expansion of the inner-wall plasma into a vacuum. The microtubes are infinitesimally twisted by a pre-seeded magnetic field B0. (Right) An ultrahigh magnetic field is generated at the center due to the ultrahigh spin currents collectively formed by relativistic electrons and ions. Credit: M. Murakami

Irradiating a tiny plastic microtube one-tenth the thickness of a human hair by ultraintense laser pulses produces hot electrons with temperatures of tens of billions of degrees. These hot electrons, along with cold ions, expand into the microtube cavity at velocities approaching the speed of light. Pre-seeding with a kT-order magnetic field causes the imploding charged particles infinitesimally twisted due to Lorenz force. Such a unique cylindrical flow collectively produces unprecedentedly high spin currents of about 1015 ampere/cm2 on the target axis and consequently, generates ultrahigh magnetic fields on the MT order.

The study conducted by Masakatsu Murakami and colleagues has confirmed that current laser technology can realize MT-order magnetic fields based on the concept. The present concept for generating MT-order magnetic fields will lead to pioneering fundamental research in numerous areas, including materials science, quantum electrodynamics (QED), and astrophysics, as well as other cutting-edge practical applications.

Reference: “Generation of megatesla magnetic fields by intense-laser-driven microtube implosions” by M. Murakami, J. J. Honrubia, K. Weichman, A. V. Arefiev and S. V. Bulanov, 6 October 2020, Scientific Reports.
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-73581-4

6 Comments on "Generating Megatesla Magnetic Fields on Earth Using Intense-Laser-Driven Microtube Implosions"

  1. Neither ‘energy ‘ nor ‘charge ‘ have ever existed: what are these scientists doing then. Inform them of the physics updates they are unaware of: The Final Theory: Rethinking Our Scientific Legacy, Mark McCutcheon.

  2. I’m sorry but you can’t just through away 400 plus years of science because some guy thinks he’s got it all figured out. He’d all ready be bigger than einstein,if there was any merit to it,as that book has been out for 16 years now. Science is as complicated as it is because it has to be not because “scientists don’t know what they’re doing”.

  3. Yeah David A. If your battery needs a charge in the winter, are u gonna say it doesn’t need to be jumped? Lol. Energy is neither created nor destroyed, merely transformed in Relativity. Ultimately though, there is Nothingness. Did you realize your true nature to that nondual degree?

  4. Scientists have assured that the incredibly large magnets of the LHC and it’s bigger brother are safe. Has anyone actually monitored or even looked for an effect since activation? The idea of black hole (not a real think per Stephen Hawking himself) sized magnetism here on earth is beyond terrifying. We need to stop poking particles with sticks and think before we take idea to action

  5. Shepard Sprague | October 13, 2020 at 12:08 pm | Reply

    You can’t call it that. Prove, Implosion bitch.

  6. Why can’t people stop believing in what people from our past said to be true today..people who think that way will never be nothing more than what they are today..we need people who think outside the box who think well let’s see what goes up must come down..only true on a planet with gravity..
    well how about trying this!
    what goes up doesn’t come down it stays right where it is at or it continues going upnever to come down..how about you throw a baseball in space and see if it stops at any point or if it comes back to you or throw it upwards and see if it comes back down!! there’s so much more out there than what people think about.. so in space there is no gravity theorize in space things are lighter there’s no Oxygen and nothing stopping anything from doing whatever so they think they can come up with a magnetic force field even though it doesn’t work on Earth in gravity it might work out there in space with there’s no gravity..mark my words scientists who do not think there’s any limits to things that they can do are going to be the ones to break the barriers on human evolution and allow us to go billions of light years away from Earth just to say hi to a neighborhood planet in one day.. got to remember in space there’s nothing to stop and moving object unless it runs into a stationary object.. and they say that there’s nothing for anything to propel off of any space in like you know a jet engine needs gravity pretty much to propel itself forwards I believe in EM-engine will be able to move in space because look at an earth weighs trillions and trillions of pounds and yet it sits still and nothing holds it up and an asteroid is flung from its asteroid belt and it keeps going and going and go never to stop

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