Joined IZEST Helmholtz Beamlines Workshop
GSI Darmstadt, 23^rd-25^th April 2012

In order to strengthen the science case for a Helmholtz Laser Beamline at FAIR, GSI has organized a 3-day workshop on April 23^rd-25^th 2012. The workshop brought together 120 participants coming from the newly founded International centre for Zetawatt and Exawatt Science and Technology (IZEST) and the FAIR collaborations HEDgeHOB, WDM and SPARC, under the patronage of FAIR, HI-Jena, HZDR and EMMI. The 70 scientific contributions given by scientists originating from 4 continents gave an overview of the scope of experiments that are planned with lasers and ions at FAIR, or that could be planned in the APPA experimental cave and the High-Energy Storage ring (HESR) triggered by the ever-progressing possibilities offered by modern high-intensity lasers.

The first day of the meeting was devoted to the review of recent progresses in laser technology that make the installation of a high shot-rate kilojoule laser at FAIR a practical possibility. During the second and third days, the opportunities offered by such a tool for accelerator research at GSI and DESY, the diagnostic of warm dense matter relevant to planetary science and more fundamental physics questions like those in the realm of QED and nuclear physics were reviewed, illustrating the ever-growing interest of the scientific community for the synergy that can be drawn in using high-intensity lasers at next-generation accelerator like FAIR.

Vincent Bagnoud for the workshop organizing committee