Proceedings

EPJ A Topical Collection: Nuclear photonics: overview and perspectives

Guest Editors: María José García Borge, Kazuo A Tanaka, Calin Alexandru Ur and Andreas Zilges

Nuclear Photonics is a major development of Photonics, which has undergone a rapid evolution and transformation over the past decade. Until recently, the field was mainly related to the photonuclear reactions induced by gamma rays, in the range of MeV energy. The Chirped Pulse Amplification method has been refined since its discovery in 1985, leading to the development of laser systems able of achieving a focused intensity as high as 1023 W/cm2. At this level of intensity, the laser-matter interaction enters the relativistic regime and the laser beam can penetrate the solid density without any difficulty, accelerate the electrons and ions and generate radiation in the gamma-ray energy range from a few hundred MeV to GeV. The comprehension and control of these interactions will facilitate the exploration of novel domains within nuclear photonics by using intense laser light.

Significant advances have been made in both theoretical and experimental aspects of nuclear photonics, thereby establishing new research opportunities. The Topical Collection Nuclear Photonics: Overview and Perspectives aims to provide a comprehensive overview of selected topics.

The contributions have been grouped into three main topics, as follows:
1) nuclear physics with gamma-ray beams, 2) laser-driven secondary radiation sources, and 3) laser-driven physics. These topics are challenging and represent a significant step forward in the pursuit of knowledge that can only be addressed by the availability of extreme light infrastructures.

The aim of this Topical Collection is twofold: first, to provide a comprehensive review of some of the most relevant topics related to nuclear photonics and second, to show the significant research opportunities that have emerged due to the development of state-of-the-art sources of high-power lasers and intense quasi-monochromatic gamma-ray sources.

The articles included in the Topical Collection are available here and are freely accessible until 30 April 2025. For further information read the Editorial.

This was our first experience of publishing with EPJ Web of Conferences. We contacted the publisher in the middle of September, just one month prior to the Conference, but everything went through smoothly. We have had published MNPS Proceedings with different publishers in the past, and would like to tell that the EPJ Web of Conferences team was probably the best, very quick, helpful and interactive. Typically, we were getting responses from EPJ Web of Conferences team within less than an hour and have had help at every production stage.
We are very thankful to Solange Guenot, Web of Conferences Publishing Editor, and Isabelle Houlbert, Web of Conferences Production Editor, for their support. These ladies are top-level professionals, who made a great contribution to the success of this issue. We are fully satisfied with the publication of the Conference Proceedings and are looking forward to further cooperation. The publication was very fast, easy and of high quality. My colleagues and I strongly recommend EPJ Web of Conferences to anyone, who is interested in quick high-quality publication of conference proceedings.

On behalf of the Organizing and Program Committees and Editorial Team of MNPS-2019, Dr. Alexey B. Nadykto, Moscow State Technological University “STANKIN”, Moscow, Russia. EPJ Web of Conferences vol. 224 (2019)

ISSN: 2100-014X (Electronic Edition)

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