I think you misunderstood me.

Case 1: Cop plants real meth (not bicarb) in your car. You have to explain it (i.e. prove the cop committed a crime), or go to prison for a while.

Case 2: Cop plants data file filled with random data on your laptop. You have to explain it (i.e. prove the cop committed a crime, or prove it isn't an encrypted file (impossible)), or go to prison for a while.

In both cases the assertion of a crime is not enough (in case 1 he has to plant real meth in your car, in case 2 he has to plant a random file on your hdd), and in both cases the cop has to commit a crime (tampering with evidence, or whatever) in order to put you away.

I still don't understand what powers this new law gives to a corrupt cop that don't already exist.

I don't understand that.

If he didn't plant an encrpyted file, then the defence lawyer could demonstrate its lack of existence during the trial.

The corrupt cop would still have to commit a crime (planting of the encrypting file) in order to lock you up. Just as in the case of him "finding" a stash of meth in your car.

I don't understand what leverage this gives the corrupt cop that previous laws haven't already provided.

(Thank you for not flaming ;) )

Sure, but isn't that the case already? Aren't there lots of other laws that can be abused in exactly the same way?

Perhaps the corrupt cop "found" a stash of meth in your car. Perhaps they "found" kiddie porn on your laptop. You're just as much in trouble as you would be if the "found" an encrypted file.

What abuse does this law allow that isn't already possible using other laws (and please don't flame me for going against the flow here) ?

Not quite.

The radiation that is emitted by the beam being bent around the synchrotron is actually called synchrotron radiation. Bremsstrahlung is a similar process where charged particles emit radiation when decelerated.

The physics is approximately the same (the acceleration -- transversely in the case of synchrotron radiation, and longitudinally in the case of bremstrahlung -- causes a reorganisation of the field lines of the particle), however they are given different names to distinguish their somewhat different properties.

A good example of both of these effects is the braking felt by particles when they interact with an opposing, oppositely charged beam at the interaction point of a collider. The field of the opposing beam causes the beams to pinch (focus transversely) and brake (decelerate longitudinally), thus yielding a huge radiation field called (rather unimaginatively) "beamstrahlung".

Not flaming. Just wondering.

Have you ever double-blinded this experiment? I.e. get someone to offer you a glass of milk (making sure that they have no idea whether it is organic or not), and testing whether you can determine if it is regular or organic?

OK, I know this experiment has the risk of leaving you with bad cramps, etc., but I was just wondering if you had ever tried.

I think you're wrong. LCLS produces light by using the undulators to amplify the spontaneously emitted light from structure already present on the electron bunches. It does this in a way that is a precise analogue of a conventional laser, and the physics of the light production can be studied and discussed in exactly the same way.

And this is SLAC's first x ray laser, and the world's first x ray FEL. Please provide links if you feel I need corrected. Cheers!

Really, as far as I know LCLS is the first x ray FEL. FLASH is not an x ray FEL (it's VUV), and neither is FELIX (it's infra-red).

Can you link to the machine you're talking about?

The article you link to shows that FELIX is an infra-red FEL, not x ray. FLASH, the other FEL that people have been mentioning is VUV, not x ray.

So I still think that this is the first *beam based* x ray laser. A slight correction from my original title (due to the existence of the NOVA experiment), but FELIX is most definitely not an x ray laser.

Interesting point. In this case, perhaps the vendors could advertise on the fact that their batteries are guaranteed to output a certain number of Ampere.hours (at whatever voltage is is that these things run at)? They would then test and discard any substandard batteries.

Does anyone know if battery testing technology is sufficiently advanced for this to be feasible?

FLASH is (I thought) VUV, not x ray, and the Euro XFEL hasn't turned on yet, so I still think that LCLS is the first x ray FEL.

Thanks for those links. I stand corrected :)

But I don't think that negates the importance of LCLS switching on. One example is that the Nova laser you linked to can only be fired 6 times a day, whereas LCLS should be able to run quite happily at 50 Hz, or more, for days (weeks?).

Accelerator physicists (like me) use the word "light" to refer to any EM radiation coming off a beam, not just optical wavelengths.

Apologies. I meant the first hard x ray laser. I don't think there has been another one of those.

And there are a group out there working on NLS -- "New Light Source" -- which I think trumps NLC for worst acronym ever.

And even once you've built your very short linac, you still have all the length of the undulators to make the thing lase. Making these machines shorter isn't just a matter of accelerating gradient.