by Markab Algedi; The Mind Unleashed
Reports indicate that scientists in China are constructing a colossal laser with enough power to literally shred the vacuum of space. How can a beam of light tear apart nothingness?
Researchers from Shanghai, China, are building what they call a “Station of Extreme Light,” a device they expect to become operational by 2023—roughly five years from now. This project is on par with CERN in scale and could generate temperatures unheard of on Earth. The technology, they say, might eventually be used to accelerate particles similar to CERN's methods.
Their ambition is to create a laser capable of emitting 100-petawatt pulses—that's 100 million billion watts. To put that in perspective, it's 10,000 times the combined power of all electrical grids on the planet. What could possibly fuel such a beast?
These unimaginably powerful laser blasts would be focused on spots just three micrometers across—about 2,000 times thinner than a typical pencil. What's the point of such a laser?
If the claims hold true, scientists would achieve a laser intensity 10 trillion trillion times greater than sunlight hitting Earth.
According to Science Mag, which reported on the breakthrough, the laser would be so potent it could “rip apart empty space.” How do you tear a void? That's a real brain-twister.
Tearing empty space would involve “breaking the vacuum”—a process where electrons are stripped from their antimatter counterparts, positrons, within the emptiness of space.
Currently, we can convert matter into enormous amounts of light and heat, as nuclear weapons demonstrate. These scientists want to reverse that process, essentially creating energy from nothing. Chinese physicist Ruxin Li believes his laser can do it.
“That would be very exciting. It would mean you could generate something from nothing,” he stated.
Science Mag provided further details about the laser:
“Inside a cramped laboratory in Shanghai, China, physicist Ruxin Li and colleagues are breaking records with the most powerful pulses of light the world has ever seen. At the heart of their laser, called the Shanghai Superintense Ultrafast Laser Facility (SULF), is a single cylinder of titanium-doped sapphire about the width of a Frisbee. After kindling light in the crystal and shunting it through a system of lenses and mirrors, the SULF distills it into pulses of mind-boggling power.
In 2016, it achieved an unprecedented 5.3 million billion watts, or petawatts (PW). The lights in Shanghai do not dim each time the laser fires, however. Although the pulses are extraordinarily powerful, they are also infinitesimally brief, lasting less than a trillionth of a second. The researchers are now upgrading their laser and hope to beat their own record by the end of this year with a 10-PW shot, which would pack more than 1000 times the power of all the world’s electrical grids combined.” The team has already built a less powerful version, the Shanghai Superintense Ultrafast Laser, which generates a still-impressive 5.3-petawatt pulse.
If this laser becomes operational, it could offer scientists an alternative method for accelerating particles, enabling research similar to that at CERN.
