Instabilities of high-intensity linearly polarized laser light in a plasma

An attempt to solve a fully nonlinear system of fluid and Maxwell equations for 1D propagation of linearly polarized relativistic intensity laser light in a uniform underdense plasma is presented. Linearly-polarized light induces longitudinal modes. Thus electronic parametric and other instabilities appear coupled with each other. We find competing relativistic forward- and backward-Raman scattering, saturated to incoherently broadened spectra via unique cascade and photon condensation mechanisms. Moreover, our code is extendable to other parametric instabilities such as stimulated Brillouin scattering, as well as to 2D treatment of e.g. laser self-focusing and filamentation.