Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 11, 2025

Experimental Methods for Spin- and Angle-Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy Combined with Polarization-Variable Laser
Published on: June 28, 2018
Spin-Polarized Condensed Plasmoids in Radiation Reaction Dominated Magnetic Reconnection
Zheng Gong1, Karen Z Hatsagortsyan2, Christoph H Keitel2
1Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
Abstract:
Transient plasma evolution with spin polarization dynamics in radiation reaction dominated magnetic reconnection is investigated using particle-in-cell simulations. We identify a condensation of plasmoids accumulated into multiple tiny islands within the reconnection layer, where electrons are strongly polarized while emitting energetic γ-ray photons to undergo radiative spin flips. Nonlinear analyses elucidate that the condensation is caused by a spiral attractor appearing in the electron's phase space due to radiation reaction. The spiral rotation and contraction of the attractor leads to the electrons' polarization being almost instantaneously parallel with respect to the magnetic field, which results in a γ-ray emission with an anomalous linear polarization perpendicular to the electron's moving plane. Our studies with around 10^{10} G magnetic fields demonstrate that spin-polarized condensed plasmoids may be realized in extreme power laser facilities and intrinsically exist in extreme astrophysical reconnection scenarios, potentially explaining atypical polarization features in observed high-energy cosmic radiation.
Related Concept Videos
Atomic Nuclei: Nuclear Relaxation Processes
Atomic Nuclei: Nuclear Magnetic Moment
Atomic Nuclei: Nuclear Spin State Population Distribution
Atomic Nuclei: Nuclear Spin State Overview
Atomic Nuclei: Magnetic Resonance
Magnetic Field due to Moving Charges
Consider a point charge moving with a constant velocity. Like the electric field, the magnetic field at any point is directly proportional to the magnitude of the charge and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the source point and the field point. However, unlike the electric field, the magnetic field is always perpendicular to the plane containing the line...

