Although the strong magnetic field is naturally generated by neutron stars, researchers have been trying to obtain similar results for many years. Wang Tao, a graduate student in mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of California, San Diego, demonstrated how to use X-ray laser in solid materials, which can not only generate a super-strong magnetic field similar to the surface of neutron stars, but also detect such a magnetic field. This research was carried out with the help of Comet Supercomputer of San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) and Stampede and Stampede2 of Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC).

All resources are part of the National Science Foundation project "Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment" (XSEDE). Alex Arefi, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the Jacob School of Engineering at the University of California, San Diego, said:

Wang Tao's discovery is very important to the published research goal. Our goal is to have a basic understanding of how multiple laser beams with extreme intensity interact with matter. Wang, Arefi and his colleagues completed this research by several large-scale 3D simulations, remote visualization and data post-processing. The research shows how intense laser pulses propagate into dense materials due to their relativistic intensity.

In other words, when the speed of electrons approaches the speed of light, their mass becomes so heavy that the target becomes transparent. Because of its transparency, laser pulses push electrons to form a strong magnetic field. This intensity is equivalent to the intensity of the neutron star surface, which is at least 65.438+0 billion times of the earth's magnetic field and about 654.38+0.000 times of the superconducting magnet. This discovery was published in Plasma Physics. Now that this research has been completed, the method of detecting this magnetic field is being studied on a unique device called the European X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL).

This equipment includes a 3.4-kilometer-long accelerator, which can produce a very strong X-ray flash for the research team. XFEL Europe, located in Schenefeld, Germany, is Toma Toncian's workplace, where he led the construction and debugging of Helmholtz international beam line, which is used in the extreme field of high-energy density instruments. The fruitful cooperation between UC San Diego and Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf paved the way for efficient experiments in the future. From construction to debugging to the first experiment, the theoretical prediction is timely, which shows us how to further develop and make full use of the instrument's capabilities.

Wei Mingsheng, a senior scientist in the Laser Energy Laboratory of the University of Rochester and one of the authors of the paper, said: The innovative microchannel target design explored in the simulation work can be demonstrated by a new type of low-density polymer foam material, whose weight is only several times that of the dry air in the microstructure tube. Because the experimental data set using XFEL is very large, the research can not be carried out on the ordinary desktop. Without the XSEDE supercomputer, it is impossible to complete this research. The research team's efforts to use supercomputers depend on the guidance of Amit Chourasia, a senior visualization scientist at SDSC University, who helped researchers build a remote parallel visualization tool.