On the design of experiments for the study of extreme field limits in the interaction of laser with ultrarelativistic electron beam

We propose the experiments on the collision of laser light and high intensity electromagnetic pulses generated by relativistic flying mirrors, with electron bunches produced by a conventional accelerator and with laser wake field accelerated electrons for studying extreme field limits in the nonlinear interaction of electromagnetic waves. The regimes of dominant radiation reaction, which completely changes the electromagnetic wave-matter interaction, will be revealed in the laser plasma experiments. This will result in a new powerful source of ultra short high brightness gamma-ray pulses. A possibility of the demonstration of the electron-positron pair creation in vacuum in a multi-photon processes can be realized. This will allow modeling under terrestrial laboratory conditions neutron star magnetospheres, cosmological gamma ray bursts and the Leptonic Era of the Universe. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.