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Angular momentum evolution in laser-plasma accelerators

The transverse properties of an electron beam are characterized by two quantities, the emittance which indicates the electron beam extend in the phase space and the angular momentum which allows for non-planar electron trajectories. Whereas the emittance of electron beams produced in laser- plasma accelerator has been measured in several experiments, their angular momentum has been scarcely studied. It was demonstrated that electrons in laser-plasma accelerator carry some angular momentum, but its origin was not established. Here we identify one source of angular momentum growth and we present experimental results showing that the angular momentum content evolves during the acceleration.