Magnetic pinching of relativistic particle beams: a new approach to strong-field QED physics

Quantum electrodynamics (QED) is a foundation of modern physics, yet access to the strong-field QED regime in the laboratory remains a formidable challenge. Currently, high-power lasers at the multi-petawatt level and above are generally believed to be an important approach to test QED physics. Here...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:New journal of physics 2023-09, Vol.25 (9), p.93016
Main Authors: Zhu, Xing-Long, Liu, Wei-Yuan, Chen, Min, Weng, Su-Ming, Wu, Dong, Yu, Tong-Pu, Wang, Wei-Min, Sheng, Zheng-Ming, Zhang, Jie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
beam–plasma interaction
Density
Design parameters
Electron beams
Electrons
Foils
Gamma rays
High power lasers
Particle accelerators
Particle beams
Physics
Plasma interactions
Positron beams
Quantum electrodynamics
relativistic particle beam pinching
Relativistic particles
strong magnetic field generation
strong-field QED effects
ultrahigh-brilliance gamma-rays
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Summary:Quantum electrodynamics (QED) is a foundation of modern physics, yet access to the strong-field QED regime in the laboratory remains a formidable challenge. Currently, high-power lasers at the multi-petawatt level and above are generally believed to be an important approach to test QED physics. Here, we present a different approach by use of an electron beam self-pinched to near-solid-density. The beam self-pinching is realized while it transports through a properly designed hollow cone target, where strong azimuthal magnetic fields are generated by the beam-induced plasma return currents at the inner surface of the cone target. In this way, the beam diameter can be reduced by more than an order of magnitude down to submicron and its density is increased by hundreds of times. The produced ultradense electron beams can unlock a new regime of QED-dominated beam–plasma interactions, for example, more than 60% of the beam energy can be converted into GeV gamma-rays with unprecedented brilliance when such a beam passes through a thin solid foil. Moreover, with proper parameter design, this beam-focusing scheme can also be applied to positron beams and thus may find applications in broad areas, such as particle colliders and strong-field physics.
ISSN:1367-2630
1367-2630
DOI:10.1088/1367-2630/acf153