The paper published by engineer Masakatsu Murakami and his team cites supercomputer simulations to suggest that a laser with a pulse energy of up to 1 kilojoule and total power of up to 100 petawatts will be required to create a magnetic field like the one found in black holes and neutron stars.
An artist’s impression of a black hole (Photo Credits: NASA)
A new research paper has gone on to suggest that magnetic fields of the same strength as found in black holes and neutron stars can be recreated on Earth. To put things in perspective, an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) used in hospitals produces magnetic fields of about 1 tesla or 10,000 gausses.
Going by what the paper suggests, we will be able to create a magnetic field equal to that found in neutron stars and black holes i.e. 1 million tesla field. In comparison, the geomagnetic field which swings all compass needles to the north registers anywhere between 0.3 and 0.5 gausses.
The paper by Osaka University engineer Masakatsu Murakami and his team titled ‘Generation of mega tesla magnetic fields by intense-laser-driven microtube implosions’ was published in the open-access journal Scientific Reports on October 6.
According to Live Science, a lab experiment in 2018 had led to the creation of a magnetic field of up to about 1,200 teslas. However, no experiment has managed to create a more powerful magnetic field than that to date.
In their paper, Murakami and his team cite computer simulations and modeling to find what happens when hollow tubes just a few microns are shot at with ultra-intense laser pulses. According to them, this would energize electrons in the tube wall and cause some of the electrons to leap into the hollow cavity at the centre of the hollow tube, thereby resulting in the implosion of the hollow tube.
Once the tube implodes, interactions of the ultra-hot electrons with the creation of vacuum results in the flow of electric current. It is this electric charge that leads to the creation of a magnetic field. Researchers found that in this case, the current flow can amplify a pre-existing magnetic field by two to three orders of magnitude.
Creating a magnetic field with the same strength as that found in a black hole will require a laser system with a pulse energy of 0.1 to 1 kilojoule and total power of 10 to 100 petawatts. This was also a part of the findings published by Murakami and his team citing supercomputer simulations.
It is, however, important to note that even if such a magnetic field is created on Earth, it will fade after about 10 nanoseconds. This will merely be enough to give way for modern physics experiments.