Plasma, the fourth state of matter, consists of a gas in which electrons are no longer bound to atoms, which allows electricity to flow freely. When beams of particles moving close to the speed of light travel through plasma, they disturb electrons and drive so-called plasma waves.

Researchers at the ELI Beamlines Facility and Czech Technical University in Prague recently explored the possibility of leveraging plasma waves driven by fast-moving beams of charged particles, such as protons or electrons, to create a relativistic mirror, a concept rooted in Einstein’s theory of special relativity.

Their theoretical analyses and the results of simulations testing their predictions were published in Physical Review E and Physical Review Research.